We Don't Have Much Time
by Lady of the Lake12
Summary: Set before Squall and the gang face Adel. A young woman falls through time to help our heroes take down Adel and Ultimecia! Please Review! This is my first fanfic so go easy on me! Chapter 9 is up
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:While Final Fantasy VIII and its characters aren't mine, the story you're about to read is!**

"Will you help us?" Laguna Loire asked

Squall Leonheart spoke for the entire group. He accepted the task. The President was overjoyed and they proceeded to head for the Ragnarok. Before they could get to the door, a portal opened up over the heads of Laguna, his advisors and the SeeD members he had hired. "WHOA!" was the only word they heard before a young woman fell out and landed right onto her back. She got up and rubbed her backside. "Ow! That was not the way I intended to land, but I guess it'll have to do." She turned around to see six teens close to her age armed and all tensed to attack her. The one with the gunblade had the edge of his sword pointed right at her. "Who are you and what just happened?" he demanded, looking her directly into her astonished green eyes.

"Hey get that thing out of my face," she retorted. Ayleia Charmeling was never one to respond to hostile guys pointing weapons at her, no matter how attractive she thought they were. He looked at her and she guessed that he was deciding that she wasn't a real threat (just yet) and he pointed the blade elsewhere. "Okay, now," he said looking at her with those threatening eyes again, he restated his question, "who are you and what just happened?"

She sighed and while dusting off her clothes, she began to explain. "My name is Ayleia Charmeling. And what just happened was I fell out of a time portal to help you guys defeat those sorceresses that you're after. I'm from the future." Ayleia finished dusting off her leather jacket and began smoothing out the midriff top and jeans that she was wearing.

"The future," Zell Dincht questioned, still poised for attack. "How the hell did you manage to get into the past? Are you some kind of sorceress!"

"Um, yeah," she shot back. "I'm a sorceress. I don't really like to use my powers, but I'd been reading about the events going on in this time, but in my future, you failed to stop Ultimecia because you couldn't get past Adel. So I wrote a spell to take me to the past."

Everyone lowered their weapons in shock. "We failed!" Selphie Tilmitt wailed. Quistis Trepe and Irvine Kinneas both stared in silence, shocked that this strange girl was informing them of their impending doom. Rinoa Heartilly began crying softly as she processed the information while Squall, Laguna, Kiros Seagill, and Ward Zaback all eyed Ayleia intently, waiting for her to continue.

"How did we fail?" Laguna asked, fearful of what the young woman was about to divulge. The rest of the gang stood there, anxious for her to answer.

Ayleia took a deep breath and went into her explanation. "Adel awakened a bit earlier than you anticipated and Ultimecia possessed her right away. None of you stood a chance. Even with a sorceress on your side," she paused, staring at Rinoa, "Adel and Ultimecia together were too much for you to handle, and you were decimated. Time compressed and all hell broke loose. In my time, Ultimecia then destroyed SeeD and killed any sorceress that she thought would challenge her, even my mother. That event has gone down in history as the Massacre of Sorceresses"

Everyone stared at here in disbelief. Finally, it was Quistis that spoke up. "Is that what this is about? You want to save your mother?"

"Actually, what I want to know is how did Ultimecia miss you?" Irvine chimed in. "It's too strange of a coincidence that you managed to survive this 'Massacre' that you're talking about."

Ayleia stared from one face to another and then looked down burying the toe of her boots into the Presidential Office's plush carpet while she brushed one of her dark curls out of her face. She bit her lip and then replied, "I was just a baby when the Massacre took place. I inherited my powers from my mother, but when I was born, she cast a spell to hide my abilities from anyone who could sense them. She must have known what was going to happen to her because she sent me and my father away. That was when Ultimecia struck."

Even Squall had some sympathy for her. Not knowing who his mother was, he knew that it was pretty much the same way she must have felt to know that her mother was torn away from her. Rinoa felt the same sympathy for Ayleia since her mother was killed in a car accident when she was five. But they had to keep their attention on the task at hand.

"….." Kiros looked over at Ward. They had both been locked in their own thoughts. He then looked at their unexpected guest. "Ward wants to know how exactly you can help us"

Ayleia began surveying the room around her. She'd been so busy with their interrogation that she hadn't been able to take in her surroundings. Everyone in the room watched her curiously as she walked toward the window. The whimsical Presidential Office had the most extravagant view of Esthar that she'd ever seen. With tears in her eyes, she said "In the future, Esthar is a desolate wasteland. In this spot, there's a huge crater from where Ultimecia blew up this palace, so I've only seen pictures of the city when it was this way. Now that I'm here, it's absolutely breathtaking."

Laguna felt his heart in his throat. He was devastated that all his gadgets and gizmos were destroyed because of their failure. _She has to help us_, he thought, _she just has to_!

Rinoa walked over to her and put her hand on Ayleia's shoulder. "If you help us, we can change the view that you have of Esthar in the future. But we need to know what needs to be done. Please tell us," she pleaded.

Ayleia turned to the group. "Our window of opportunity is very small. If you want to defeat Adel and get to Ultimecia, we have to hurry to Lunatic Pandora. Adel isn't fully awake yet and the path to her is blocked by Seifer Almasy."

"We'll handle Seifer," Squall finally said. "But you still have to tell us how do destroy Adel," Selphie pointed out.

Everyone looked at her again. She began tying back her long curls into a ponytail and finally said, "Me. You need stronger magic than what any of you or Rinoa has. No offense, but she's new to her power. We don't have time for me to teach her how to use it, so adding my power to yours is the only choice we have."

Squall and Laguna looked at each other. Each knew that the other was considering what Ayleia was saying to them. The group needed to discuss this privately. Laguna looked at Ayleia and asked her to leave the room so they could talk privately. "You can go to the kitchen and grab something to eat. I'm pretty sure that you're hungry after falling through time and all. We won't be long."

Ayleia graciously accepted his offer, but reminded him that time isn't on their side right now and left.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Okay I need Reviews people. Please tell me if my story is tanking!**_

_**Chapter 2**_

Laguna rubbed the back of his neck as he closed the door behind Ayleia. He turned to see that everyone was apparently locked themselves inside their own thoughts. Selphie and Rinoa had both stopped their tears and Squall had finally put away his gunblade. He had only lowered it when Ayleia explained what her purpose was for her trip into the past. Finally Laguna cleared his throat to break the silence and get everyone's attention.

"So, now that we know that we failed, we need to come up with a plan B," he said thoughtfully. "Ayleia suggested that adding her power to SeeD was quite possibly the only way we stand a chance at defeating Adel before Ultimecia."

"Do you think we should trust her?" Squall asked, voicing the one question that was clearly the one that everyone wanted to ask. "She's a sorceress. Why wouldn't Ultimecia want to possess Ayleia instead of Adel?"

Nodding, Zell added, "That's a good question, but what I'm wondering is it possible that Ultimecia sent her here to distract us?"

"I don't think that is possible," Quistis answered. "If it were that easy, why wouldn't Ultimecia just come back here herself? Why possess Edea, Rinoa, or Adel at all?"

Irvine finally spoke up. "Yeah, why wouldn't she just go back in time as far as she needs to go to perform the time compression? It doesn't add up."

"But Ayleia said that her mother cast a spell to hide her powers from anyone who could sense them" Rinoa pointed out. "And if that's the case, then it's possible that Ultimecia doesn't know about Ayleia's power. After all she did kill all the other sorceresses, so I would guess that she thinks that she's the only surviving sorceress left. That just leaves the question about how Ayleia managed to bring herself back into our time."

"…."

"Ward suggests that maybe Ayleia created some kind of spell that can take someone to the past," Kiros offered. "I'm inclined to agree until we actually ask her, but that can wait until we figure out our current problem."

Pointing out the task at hand made everyone realize that they still need to decide on a new plan of action in defeating Adel. They all knew that they can't do anything about Ultimecia until they got past her and they were wasting precious time. "Well we still don't know if we can trust Ayleia. But if she's telling the truth, we don't have a lot of time," Squall acknowledged.

Quistis, Zell, Rinoa, Selphie, and Irvine all looked at him in disbelief. Squall wasn't exactly known for trusting people, so it was shocking to them for him to even entertain the idea of trusting a complete stranger. "Yeah, Squall's right," Selphie said. "But I don't think we have any choice but to trust her. She seems to be legit and we don't have time to worry about it now, so I guess I think we should go along with her idea."

"Selphie has a point. We don't have time for this, so let's put it to a vote and leave it at that," Laguna suggested. "Should we go along with Ayleia's plan?"

Everyone looked around. Hesitantly, Quistis raised her hand, followed by Rinoa, Irvine, and then the others. "So I guess that it's a go," Laguna said. Alright, let's bring our new ally back."

Before he could get the word "back" out of his mouth, Ayleia walked into the room holding a plate with a huge slice of Mrs. Moogle's cake on it. She looked at the shocked group and blushed. "Look, I read about Mrs. Moogle's cake back in my time and I always wondered what it tasted like since no one knows how to make it. Besides, Laguna told me to grab something to eat. Did you think I was just going to eat a PB&J? Besides, I heard that it's one of Laguna's favorite foods." She looked at the President, who was absolutely beet red with this revelation. "Sorry, I think I cleaned out your kitchen. I had no clue that time travel could take such a toll on a girl's appetite! Anyway, Laguna said you wouldn't take long, so have you all decided?"

"Yeah, we decided," Squall replied coolly. He could not BELIEVE that this girl was stuffing her face in the middle of this.

"And," Ayleia asked. "Well, we decided to go along with your plan," Laguna announced. "But you can't take your cake with you on the Ragnarok."

Ayleia blushed again. "Don't worry," she replied. "I'll have this finished before we leave the palace!"

Selphie was shocked. She absolutely loved Mrs. Moogle's cake and usually devoured it immediately, but Ayleia completely destroyed her slice. She was even more surprised when Ayleia showed enough etiquette to gracefully wipe her mouth with a napkin, hand the plate to a palace aide, and right herself as if she'd not just eaten the biggest piece of cake anyone has ever seen.

As they walked through Esthar headed toward the Airstation, they had lots of battles. The Lunar Cry had rained down so many monsters, that they seemed to be fighting their way to Ragnarok. But it gave them an opportunity to watch Ayleia in action. She effortlessly used her magic and was pretty decent with the pair of sais that she used. They had just finished off an Elnoyle and were almost to the Airstation when Quistis decided to break the silence "Um, Ayleia, do you mind if I ask you something?" Ayleia stopped and turned, prompting the rest of their group to stop.

"Sure, Quistis" Ayleia replied cleaning the gunk from the winged monster off one of her weapons. "Actually you all can feel free to ask me anything you want to know. But we need to keep going." They continued walking to the Airstation.

Ayleia slowed down enough for Quistis to get alongside her. "Okay, here goes," Quistis began. "How exactly did you get here? As far as we know, there is no known magic that can send a person through time physically, so how'd you do it?"

_Great, more explaining to do_, Ayleia thought._ I knew I would have a lot of questions, so I guess it can't hurt and what the hell. It'll pass the time while we head for Lunatic Pandora_. "It wasn't easy," Ayleia started. "I tried several spells before I got it right. Not even Ultimecia can pull it off, so in my book, it's quite an accomplishment. I'm actually proud of it."

"Yeah, but how'd you do manage it?" Squall asked looking back at her suspiciously. Even he was surprised at his curiosity. How she got here was obviously just as big a question to him as whether or not they should trust her. He was still debating the latter question, since he only agreed to go along with her plan so they wouldn't waste anymore time, but he fully intended to keep a close eye on their new "friend". Any funny business out of her, and he'd be killing three sorceresses instead of just two.

"Well at first, I tried several different items. I tried using Junction Machine Ellone and I added some Slowing Magic to it to see if that would work, but I ended up throwing myself across the room and broke the machine. I got a serious concussion, too," she responded patiently. "Then I tried combining the same magic with an Ultima spell, but I ended up slowly blowing up my room. Everything ended up in some sort of a disaster"

"But wouldn't Ultimecia have sensed your use of magic?" Zell asked. "Yeah, I would think that she would have sensed someone using magic and killed them."

"Well, yeah," Ayleia agreed. "But with my mother's spell protecting me, she couldn't sense the magic. It's blocked to any other person who would otherwise have been able to detect it. Anyway, I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked, so I started thinking about it some more. And then the idea hit me! I'd written spells before and they had always worked, so I started writing. I think I wrote like a million spells, none of which worked. And then I thought about it some more. I realized that I wasn't being clear enough with the writing, so I tried again and I carefully wrote a spell that would take me to the exact moment before you all left the Presidential palace to confront Adel. Fortunately it worked."

"Sounds reasonable, I guess," Laguna thought out loud. "But about this plan of yours. Have you worked it all out?"

"Oh, yeah I guess I can give you a rough idea of what I have in mind," Ayleia replied. "I'm not exactly one hundred percent sure that we'll arrive in time to stop Ultimecia from possessing Adel, but five SeeDs and a sorceress didn't have a prayer against them, so I figure if we have two sorceresses that we stand a chance. However, we have to get past Almasy. He has your friend Ellone and you need her for your plan to work, right?"

"Wait a minute! How do you know about that," Squall demanded. If he wasn't sure before that they could trust her, he was definitely not convinced now and before he could think about it, he had his hand on his gunblade.

Ayleia was just about tired of Squall's threatening her with that damned gunblade. "Dude, chill," she shot back. Her impatience was starting to show. "Look, I know you had a plan and that you needed Ellone because of the machine named after her. I knew that that was the reason that Ultimecia was looking for her and that was why Almasy had her at Lunatic Pandora. Ultimecia is planning to use her to take her further into the past once she took possession of Adel. I know you don't exactly trust me, Squall, but we're all after the same thing here."

"Are we really?" he asked icily. "I'm not exactly convinced of your motives, Charmeling. What exactly do you plan to accomplish by helping us?"

Ayleia rolled her eyes. _Geez, is this guy clueless? _she thought. Now she was pissed off. "What do I plan to accomplish? Are you serious!" she said, barely able to contain her emotion. The entire group stopped outside the gate to the Airstation. "I plan to stop an evil witch from destroying the world along with my family. You really don't get it do you?" She had begun yelling angrily, taking everyone aback. They had assumed that she was a pretty laid back person. Actually, Selphie, who had started to like her, had begun to think of her as a kindred spirit. The tears began to fall from her green eyes. They'd been bright and sparkly most of the time. Now they were dark and the color of her eyes seemed to begin to get darker and it looked as if her eyes were going to ignite. _Wait. Do sorceresses' eyes ignite when they're angry? _Zell wondered.

"My father was devastated when my mother died. He actually KILLED himself when I was thirteen," she tearfully continued. "In the letter he left for me, he said that he only waited as long as he did to make sure that I would be able to take care of myself. He told me that my mother had left something for me and he told me that he had hidden it until he felt that I was ready. What she had left for me was a bunch of her journals that served as a sort of guide to using my magic. He said that she'd written them for me because Ultimecia had begun killing the other sorceresses. She'd already planned to cast her protection spell, and she just wanted to insure that I was able to handle my abilities when I was old enough. I barely remember my mother and I miss my father, so what do I intend to accomplish! DO THE FUCKING MATH LEONHEART!"

She stormed past him, marching towards the gates of the Airstation. Rinoa, Zell, Selphie and Quistis all looked at Squall in disbelief. Irvine ran his hand through his hair and looked down. _Man I thought Sefie was a handful! I'm not getting on HER bad side _he thought. Laguna, Kiros, Ward, and Squall watched as Ayleia angrily stalked toward the Ragnarok.

Squall knew immediately after she told them about her father that he had unforgivably crossed a line with Ayleia. He instantly felt guilty when she said it, but he wasn't sorry that they had finally gotten to the bottom what was motivating her.

"…."

"Yeah, Ward's right Squall," Irvine said. "I think you forced something out of her that she wasn't ready to tell us about herself."

"Dude, no offense, but you went a little too far with her," Zell added.

Squall turned toward Zell, the guilt actually showing on his face. "Don't you think I know that! I didn't mean to open up a can of worms for her, okay! I just wanted to get to the bottom of her story. What do you want me to say?"

"You don't need to say anything to us, Squall," Quistis replied quietly. "But that girl up there was just forced to tell us something that she wasn't ready to talk about. It's something that truly hurts her to discuss. You need to apologize to her."

Squall mumbled something about being terrible with apologies. "Yeah, we know you're terrible with this sort of thing," Rinoa replied, "but you need to clear the air with her. We can't go into this battle with something like this hanging over our heads. It's distracting." Quistis and Selphie nodded in agreement.

"Rinoa's right, Squall," Laguna chimed in. "So just go over there and talk to her."

Squall looked at the rest of the group. They all looked back at him expectantly. He then turned back toward the gate. Ayleia had already gone inside the Airstation, so that gave him plenty of time to come up with an apology. He sighed and started walking to the gate.


	3. Chapter 3

_**This chapter is a little longer than the last two. I hope you like it and will review!**_

_**Chapter 3**_

Ayleia stormed into the newly bustling Airstation. The destruction of the Lunar Base, the Lunar Cry and the return of the Ragnarok had forced Laguna to reopen the Airstation. The new employees were busy learning the ropes from some of the former staff members, so no one really noticed her. She immediately found a quite corner to gather her thoughts. Ayleia had barely managed to control her anger enough to stop her eyes from igniting, but was unsuccessful in controlling her tears and once she lowered herself onto the floor, the tears immediately started their free-fall. Her mother's death and her father's suicide were obviously not two of her favorite topics, but she wasn't about to let anyone, especially the SeeD members that she came back to help, see her break down.

She must have cried for five minutes before one of her fondest memories started rushing into her head. Once it started, she lost consciousness.

"Ayleia, wake up! It's time to get ready for school," her father said. _Uh oh! Not now_, Ayleia thought, panicked. This had happened before. She opened her eyes and looked around. She didn't really have to, because she knew she was in her old room. The walls were the same color pink the sky often was when the dark waves of time's compression weren't dominating the horizon. The small bed was made of oak found outside of Timber and was decorated with pink, blue and purple pillows and a pink bedspread. Looking out the window, Ayleia could see that the sun was shining that day. She turned and watched as a little raven-haired girl with her same sparkling eyes, although they were a bit sleepy, sat up in her bed and smiled up at her father who was smiling lovingly back at her. He was tall and muscular, with brown hair and the same green eyes as the little girl.

"G'morning, Daddy," Ayleia said sleepily.

"Good morning, honey," he replied.

Ayleia immediately recognized the memory. She was five years old and it was her first day of school. Her father had bought her a new dress the day before. Ayleia had seen it when they had gone shopping in Deling City and instantly fell in love with it. It was extremely expensive, but her father willingly bought it for her anyway. It had cost him his entire paycheck, but Joshua Charmeling's daughter's happiness was all that mattered to him. She was the only living connection to his dead wife, and he refused to allow or cause her any sadness.

"Daddy, are you going to walk me to school?" the younger Ayleia asked hopefully.

Joshua sat on his daughter's bed and looked her over. _She is the devastating image of her mother_, he thought. _Except her eyes. Her eyes are mine._

_Yes Daddy,_ Ayleia thought to herself, _I do have your eyes._

"Are you kidding me!" he replied. "I wouldn't dream of missing my little girl's first day of school. And I might just stay with you all day and after that, we are going to go to town for some ice cream!"

Satisfied with what her father said, Ayleia's younger self launched out of her bed with full force and threw her arms around her father's neck. He caught her with his weight and returned her hug with a tight squeeze. "Alright sweetheart," he continued seriously. "If this is what we're going to do today, you have to get ready and then come downstairs for breakfast. We're having your favorite blueberry pancakes."

As the memory faded around her, Ayleia realized that another memory was starting. The room changed around her and she looked around to see that the walls were now a light purple. The bed she had when she was younger was now replaced by a much larger, wider bed made of wrought iron and was decorated in purple and black. Without even thinking about it, Ayleia knew what this memory was and as more tears began welling up in her eyes, she heard a terrifying scream from downstairs.

Ayleia fled out of her bedroom and raced down the staircase into the living room. She surveyed the room around her and saw that the plush couch was covered in blood. She was literally reliving the most horrifying moment of her life. She began sobbing uncontrollably as she looked toward the floor. The image she saw was one she couldn't escape no matter how hard she tried

The same man that had taken her for ice cream on her first day of school was lying lifelessly on the floor. Next to his hand was a small pistol, and cradling his blood covered head in her hands was Ayleia's thirteen-year-old self. She had just returned home from school, eager to show her father her grades. She had passed all of her classes with flying colors and knew that her father would be so very proud of her. She looked over toward the coffee table and found a sealed envelope with her name on it with her father's handwriting on it. She gently lowered her father's head onto the floor and reached for the letter. Tearing it open she could see her father's letterhead, his name scrawled across the top with his signature in silver. Wiping her face with the less bloody sleeve of her shirt, she read her father's last words to her:

_Ayleia,_

_I'm so very sorry that you're hurting right now, but I know that you're going to be okay. You are the best daughter that any _

_father could have asked for. I will miss you so very much, but I want you to know that your mother and I are together now,_

_so I'm just as happy as I was when I was with you. I know that you will be able to take care of yourself and that you're ready _

_for what I'm about to tell you. Every single strange thing you have dealt with in your life. The bright, dancing lights that you_

_would see floating around your room when you were sad were not a figment of your imagination. They were a product of _

_your mind. My darling, you are a sorceress, as was your mother. When she was pregnant, she knew that her power would_

_pass on to you. At the time that you were conceived, the sorceress you know as Ultimecia was killing other sorceresses, but_

_your mother's magic, combined with your own, helped to keep the two of you safe from her. Not wanting to see you killed at_

_birth, your mother cast a protection spell over you when you were first born. This spell holds even now. I only know this because_

_if it were not true, both you and I would both have been dead a long time ago. She also knew that once you were born, it was _

_only a matter of time before Ultimecia came for her, so she wrote journals to you explaining how to use your powers. I'm sorry_

_that I have kept this from you, Sweetheart, but you were far too young to fully understand this. I kept the journals in my bedroom_

_in the vault behind your mother's portrait. Take the key from my right pocket and open the locked compartment of my desk and _

_there you will find the combination. Take care of yourself and those around you, as I have taught you. I love you, my sweet girl._

_Your Father_

Up until that letter, her father had told her that her mother died in childbirth. She had spent thirteen wonderful years oblivious to her heritage. As Ayleia watched her past self begin to weep again, the memory faded away and she felt herself regain consciousness. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw that she was surrounded by Squall, their comrades, and several of the Airstation's awestruck employees.

Squall grumbled to himself as he walked through the entrance of the Airstation. He didn't know how Ayleia would receive his apology, but it was the best that he could think of. It was truly sincere, but he wasn't sure that she would be receptive.

Walking into the main terminal, Squall noticed that the entire room was extremely bright and the lights seemed to be pulsing. When they had landed in Esthar after leaving Edea's house, the Airstation was bright, but nowhere near this bright. The Airstation's staff was completely baffled as to where the light was coming from, but looking around, Squall immediately saw the source of the light.

Ayleia was slumped against the wall and unconscious, with a bright light emanating from her in long pulses. Yelling for the others, Squall rushed over to her and started to desperately try to wake her.

Selphie was the first to reach Squall, followed by Zell, Quistis, Rinoa, and then the others. "Oh Hyne!"Selphie shrieked.

"What in the hell is happening to her!" Zell asked.

"I don't know," Squall replied. "I walked in and found her and the entire room like this!"

Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Squall, Kiros, Laguna, Zell, Ward and Quistis all watched in silent horror as the bright, white light emanating from Ayleia changed and turned the room to near pitch blackness.

"Whatever is happening, we need to get her to the infirmary now!" Laguna declared. He was frightened that something terrible was happening to this courageous young woman who, not even two hours ago, had landed on her backside through a time portal to help save the world from uncertain terror at Ultimecia's hands.

Irvine started to step forward, but was stopped by Ward. Looking at him, Irvine understood that Ward was offering to carry her.

"The infirmary," Rinoa screamed. "She doesn't look like she'll last much longer."

"Do you think we can make it," Quistis asked.

As if by some miracle, the energy coming from Ayleia suddenly stopped. Laguna nervously stepped forward and began to check for any vitals. His sigh of relief was all that everyone needed to hear to know that Ayleia was okay. And then her eyes fluttered open.

_She looks as if she's not surprised to see everyone standing around her_, Squall thought to himself.

Ayleia groaned inwardly as she looked around and saw all the expressions of concern. She leaned her head back up against the wall and closed her eyes for a couple of minutes before reopening them and sighed.

"How long was I out," she asked.

"It seemed like forever!" Selphie replied, with relief in her voice. "Are you okay!"

"Yeah, you were out for like ten minutes after we found you," Irvine added. Ayleia muttered a swearword and started to get to her feet before Laguna stopped her.

"You should stay seated for a couple more minutes," he advised.

"I need some water." Ayleia replied. Laguna nodded and then, noticing that they weren't the only ones watching this scene, he asked one of the new staff members to get Ayleia some water.

"Ayleia, what was happening to you?" Rinoa asked. The others all seemed to be wondering the exact same thing and, looking from one face to the other, she could tell that all of them, even Squall, were both amazed, and relieved that she was okay.

"I don't know how to explain it," Ayleia began. "It's been happening to me since I was a kid. I didn't know that there were external effects to it until I was about fifteen because my father never explained it to me before he died. Even when it happened in school, no one would ever tell me what was going on. Most of the kids around me thought I was some sort of freak, but others seemed to be okay with it. But, well, whatever. When you found me, I was, what I call, lost in memory.

"Lost in memory?" Irvine asked. "What do you mean?"

"Alright, I'll do my best to break it down as best as I can," she sighed. "My strongest memories have a tendency to make me lose consciousness. The lights that come vary in color depending on the memory. What colors did you see?" she asked.

They all looked at each other, and then everyone looked from Squall and back to Ayleia. Finally Squall spoke. "I was the one who found you. You were slumped up against the wall and the light that was coming from you was bright white at first. After a few minutes, the light changed and the room nearly went pitch black."

After Squall finished, the staff member returned with a large glass of water. "Ayleia, what were you remembering?" Selphie asked, as she took the water from the young man and handed it to Ayleia and then sat down next to her. Ayleia took a small drink of the water and savored the feeling of the cool water going down her throat.

"Thanks. I was remembering my first day of school." She answered. She lovingly recalled in full detail the entire memory for everyone standing around her. Selphie smiled as Ayleia told the story of her fondest memory of her father.

"Um, that explains the bright white lights," Rinoa said. "Ayleia," she continued, "you don't have to tell us about the darkness. I'm pretty sure that we can all guess what it was."

After that, Ayleia's lip began to tremble and the tears started to well up again. She fought them with everything she had, but it was no use. The tears began again.

"I found him," she started, "I had come home from school to show him my grades. I'd passed all my classes, and when I got home, I knew he'd be in the living room." She began sobbing again, and Selphie took her hand as she continued.

"He was just lying there on the floor," she kept going. "The gun was lying beside him and the couch was all bloody. I rushed over to him, and I tried to save him, but he was so cold. I, I didn't know what to do. I think I cried for hours, and then I noticed the letter he left for me on the coffee table. It had everything I needed to know about my heritage in it. He told me about my mother's death. Up until then, I thought she had died giving birth to me. I wasn't even angry that he lied to me about how she died. "I just missed him so much."

"I had learned about events leading up to time compression and the Massacre of Sorceresses in school," she continued, "but I didn't know how personal it would become for me. But when he told me about Ultimecia and what she had done, I knew that she was to blame for my mother dying. So I made up my mind that I would use my power to fix things. I spent endless months doing little else other than studying my mother's journals and practicing my magic. When I finally mastered everything she wrote about, I started working on coming back here to help stop this."

After she stopped crying, she looked up at Squall who, unbelievably, was looking at her with sympathy. "Now that you know the whole reason that I'm here, can you accept that I'm here for the same reason you are?" she asked softly.

Squall had instantly realized how deep this really went for Ayleia when she began recalling memories of her father. He walked in front of her and, looking into her green eyes with his grayish-blue ones, he extended his hand to help her up.

"Let's go," he said.

Taking this as a sign that Squall had indeed come to understand her reason for being here, she allowed him and Selphie to help her to her feet. As their audience cleared a path for them, they proceeded to the Ragnarok.

_**Author's note: I made blueberry pancakes Ayleia's favorite because of my personal love for blueberries!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

**_Hope you guys like it! _**Once they took off in the Ragnarok, Laguna decided that they should go over the plan one last time. Everyone knew that Ellone had to be rescued before anything else was to happen, but they were all nervous about the confrontation with Sorceress Adel. After hearing from Ayleia about their imminent failure, their confidence had dwindled. Laguna prayed that Ayleia's revision of the plan would work, otherwise, Esthar and the entire world would end as they knew it.

"Okay, we know that we were supposed to fail because of bad timing, but if we can kill Adel before Ultimecia can possess her, the rest is pretty much cake. But first we enter Lunatic Pandora and rescue Ellone from Seifer, and then we go into battle with Adel. It'll be a surprise attack, since she hopefully won't be awake yet, so show no mercy. Then Adel's powers pass onto Rinoa, after which we wait for Ultimecia to possess her…"

"Wait," Squall interjected. He turned and looked at Ayleia. She was still shaken up by the memories she'd relived not too long ago and had chosen to sit in the back row of seats. She had her legs tucked under herself and was seemingly lost in her thoughts. Quistis had been keeping an eye on her, making sure that she didn't pass out again. She walked over to Ayleia and tapped her on the shoulder.

"I've been paying attention," Ayleia said, looking up at Quistis. She craned her head to look past Quistis to see that the others were staring at her. She noticed that Squall was looking at her hopefully. "Squall, what were you going to say?" she asked.

"I was just curious why we've settled on Rinoa taking over Adel's powers and being possessed by Ultimecia to instigate time compression," he asked. "Why can't it be you? You're supposed to be stronger than her with your magic, so why can't you take this on?"

Rising to her feet, Ayleia nodded her head knowingly. "It may as well be stamped on your forehead. I saw it when I told you that Rinoa wasn't a strong enough sorceress to help you take on Adel," she gestured toward Rinoa. "Anyone can see that you care a great deal about Rinoa, and I understand that you don't want her to have to go through this, Squall, but we have no choice."

"Ultimecia doesn't know about me and that works to our advantage," she went on. "Since she doesn't know about me, she can't possess me and I can help make sure that Adel isn't alive long enough to be possessed. And even if she did know about me, I am stronger than Rinoa with my magic, and that's precisely the problem. I could battle Ultimecia for control and win or get myself killed in the struggle. Rinoa, on the other hand, has already been possessed by Ultimecia, and it worked in Ultimecia's favor. She gained total control over Rinoa, you saw that for yourself. So she'll go with what works."

"I know you're right," Squall responded, frowning. "I just don't like the idea of Rinoa having to bear this burden," he continued and then walked over to Rinoa and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'd do it if I could, Squall," Ayleia sighed. "But if Ultimecia possesses me, all of this could be for nothing. The idea of my magic combined with Ultimecia's is about as bad as her magic combined with Adel's. It's too dangerous either way. Our magic would be entirely too strong."

"Alright," Laguna said. "Then what exactly are you going to do, Ayleia? You haven't gone into complete detail about this. And we need to know now."

Ayleia walked toward the window of the Ragnarok. She could see the outline of Lunatic Pandora looming ahead on the horizon. _There isn't much time_, she thought. _I need to go ahead and tell them now._ She turned back to the group, all of them waiting expectantly. "There is no way we can prevent Adel from waking up," she said flatly.

They all looked at her in shock for what seemed like the millionth time. "Wait, what?" Rinoa asked. "We can't stop it?"

"No, we can't," Ayleia replied, holding up her hand to stop anyone from attempting to interrupt her. There wasn't enough time to answer the batch of questions she was certain they wanted to ask. "You must understand that Adel is already almost awake and by the time we get to her, she'll be ready to fight. And actually we should be counting on that."

"Counting on it," Quistis repeated, "why should we count on that?"

"Please let me finish," she said imploringly. "Adel still won't exactly be fully functional when she wakes up, and she'll be a little rusty with her powers. That will help us a lot, but make no mistake; her magic will still pack a punch. I'll be able to block most of her attacks, while using some attacks of my own to hurt her while draining her of her strength.

"While you all bring her down with your weapons," Ayleia continued, "Rinoa can use her magic to weaken Adel even more. Once she's weak enough, Rinoa and I will combine our magic to deal the final blow. Ultimecia will know what's happening, but she'll most likely think it's just Rinoa's power is getting stronger. She won't know that I'm helping you."

They all looked at her with amazement. "You make it sound so simple," Zell said finally.

She shrugged. "It may sound easy, but it'll be anything but. Adel, no matter how weak she is right now, is still a powerful sorceress. We'll be lucky if we can bring her down quickly. This could be a long fight," she sighed.

"So like, I guess we'll have to give it all that we've got, right?" Irvine asked. He didn't like the idea of this fight dragging out more than necessary.

"I don't have a problem with that," Quistis said. "But what do we do when time compresses?"

"You all have to stay together," Laguna announced. "Ultimecia lives in a time where we don't exist so you can't forget about each other. Think of a place that reminds you of your friends and that's where you'll end up. It's all about Love, Friendship, and Courage!" He turned to Ayleia. "Will you be going with them into time compression?"

"I kinda have to," Ayleia replied. "I've got to see this to the end. Besides, that bitch took my family. She killed my mother before I could know her, and she took my father from me because he couldn't go on anymore without mom. I want to stop her now." Looking back toward the window, she saw that they were only a few more miles away from Tear's Point. She looked back down at the clothes she was wearing and sighed. "These clothes simply will not do for battle. I'm going to change." She headed toward the door.

"Into what?" Zell asked indignantly. "You don't even have any clothes to change into!"

She stopped and turned around to face them. "Honey, I'm a sorceress," she said smiling. "I can conjure up clothes whenever I see fit. I may not like using my powers, but having them does have its perks." With that, she walked out of the room.

Quistis and Rinoa could barely contain their laughter. Ayleia may have been through a lot, and she seemed to be pretty tough, but she was still a girl. She still cared about how she looked and showed that she was diva enough to want an outfit simply to do battle with a sorceress!

When Ayleia returned a couple of minutes later, Squall, Irvine, and Zell looked at her in stunned silence. Zell had trouble keeping his jaw from dropping to the floor. She had conjured up a pair of tight black pants that showed off curves Irvine wouldn't have imagined she'd had, but didn't hinder her ability to move. She'd donned a corset, knee high boots, and a flowing jacket to match. To go along with her new outfit, Squall noticed that she'd also taken new weapons. In addition to her sais, which were sticking out of her boots, Ayleia had also chosen a flexible sword called a urumi which was attached to her belt, and a stiletto, placed in a hilt on the other side of her belt, to carry as well.

Quistis's envious expression at not ever being able to pour her body into an outfit like that suddenly changed to one of curiosity, as she noticed that behind one of Ayleia's curls, most of which had been pulled away from her face, was a gold chain hanging around Ayleia's neck. "What's that, Ayleia?" she asked.

Ayleia's hand immediately rose to the chain and she removed it from around her neck to show them the disk that was attached to her necklace. "It's a necklace that belonged to my mother," she replied softly.

Rinoa's curiosity got the better of her. "May I," she asked, holding out her hand.

Ayleia nodded and gently placed the necklace in Rinoa's waiting palm. It still looked fairly and upon further inspection Rinoa noticed that there was an inscription on the disc:

_Liberi Servo_

"Ayleia, it's beautiful," Rinoa said, handing it back to her with reverence. "What does the inscription mean?"

"I discovered it inside an envelope among my mother's journals," she said with a touch of sadness in her voice as she put the necklace back on. "She said that it's the incantation that would remove the protective spell she cast to protect me and my father." She sighed. "There were several times when I just wanted to say it so that Ultimecia would find me and kill me so I could be with my parents." She could feel tears coming back to her, but this time she succeeded in fighting them back.

"But I knew what needed to be done" she said with resolve in her voice. "I knew that I had to come back here and fight because if I didn't, there wouldn't be anyone to stop Ultimecia's tyranny. I have to end this so that no one else will get hurt."

"…." Ward walked over to Ayleia and gave her a gentle squeeze around her shoulders. Ayleia looked up at him and smiled her somewhat crooked smile.

"He's right," Laguna said genuinely. "We all do admire your courage." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Let's just hope that it pays off," Squall said.

"Only one way to find out," Ayleia responded and nodded toward the window. "Come on, we're almost there."

As the others headed up to the cockpit to join Selphie, Ayleia and Squall stayed behind to insist that Laguna, Kiros, and Ward remain in the conference below until they had cleared a path.

"How the hell are we going to know that you've cleared the path?" Laguna asked; his frustration at being kept in closed quarters painfully obvious in his voice. "I wouldn't mind mixing it up in there!"

"Just the same, Laguna," Squall had replied evenly, "you are the President of Esthar and you have a responsibility to your people. We can't afford to let you put your life at risk."

Ayleia put her hand on the not-so-happy Laguna's shoulder. He could sometimes act a bit like a child when he didn't get his way. "Trust me, I'll let you know when the way is clear," she promised. Accepting this, but not liking it, Laguna shrugged his shoulders and plopped down in the closest chair he could find as she and Squall left the room.

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Out in the hallway, Squall caught Ayleia by the wrist. "Laguna seems to have taken a liking to you," he pointed out, caught once again by those vibrant green eyes. He noticed that they had some golden flecks through out them. _Okay, why am I paying attention to the details of her eyes?_ he thought to himself. Thankfully, she closed her eyes as she shook her head and sighed.

"I think it's just because I came back to help you guys out and he appreciates that," she answered as she reopened her eyes. "That's a lot more than I could say about you," she went on, folding her arms.

Squall frowned and let go of her wrist. He thought that maybe she had let go of his hurtful comments toward her. He scratched his head and jammed his hands into his pockets and studied her expectant face. He wasn't sure if she was waiting for an apology or not. "Look Ayleia," he began, "I've never been really good at apologies, but I know that I crossed the line by forcing you to tell us about your parents and I am sorry for that. We don't need this hanging over our heads going into this fight, so can we please drop it?"

Ayleia waved her hand dismissively. She had made it clear that he'd transgressed before they boarded the Ragnarok. But she knew when she went inside the Airstation that her fight with Squall couldn't hang over her head. Destroying Adel and getting to Ultimecia was all that mattered. But then the memories began. She had always considered getting lost in them a gift for her mother. In the last four years, her memories have been the only thing that kept her going. After her father died, she basically cut herself off from the world to study her magic and find a way to stop Ultimecia. Her memories kept her focused, which was what she needed when she walked into the Airstation.

"Forget about it, Squall," she replied. "There was no way you could have completely understood how deep this goes for me without my divulging that to you. So, it's cool." She studied his seemingly worried face. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah I'm ready," he said firmly. He gestured toward her outfit. "Are you really going to be able to fight in that," he asked skeptically.

"Don't worry, I can still move quite well," she answered confidently as they stepped onto the lift waiting to take them to the cockpit.

Once they were in the cockpit, they saw that Irvine was filling Selphie in on the plan while Zell and Quistis had taken over flying the Ragnarok. Ayleia walked up to stand behind them while Squall spoke to Rinoa for a couple of minutes.

"You sure about this," he asked her with concern in his eyes.

Smiling at him, she took his hand. "I think so," she replied taking a deep breath. "Ayleia said that we don't have a choice, I have to do this. We have to stop Ultimecia, and if this is the part that I have to play for us to do that, then I'll gladly do it."

Amazed by her courage, Squall squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "We'll do everything we can to make sure you're okay while you do this," he promised and then walked over to where Ayleia was standing near Quistis and Zell.

Rinoa couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous of Ayleia. She was a far stronger and skilled both as a fighter and a sorceress than Rinoa was. _It's almost as if she were made for Squall_ she thought sadly. But she had to remind herself that Squall had done so much to save her because he loved _her_. Reassuring herself, Rinoa took another deep breath and readied herself for the rapidly approaching battle.

A few minutes later, Irvine had finished telling Selphie about the plan and Quistis allowed her to resume piloting the she ship. They all braced themselves for the collision with Lunatic Pandora.

"We shouldn't have any trouble getting in once we blast our way through," Selphie said excitedly. "We'll just make a big hole with the cannon!"

Selphie nodded at Zell, who was manning the guns, and gave him the go ahead to blast through. Esthar had spared no expense arming the Ragnarok. The machine guns fired off hundreds of rounds the second Zell's fingers touched the trigger. The bullets seemed to be stopped by a barrier

"Dammit! They have shields," Irvine shouted. Selphie seemed to revel in the intensity of the situation and squealed gleefully as she successfully plunged the Ragnarok through Lunatic Pandora's shield. Once they were through far enough, Zell hit the trigger for the ship's main cannon. The blast was powerful enough to knock those of them who were standing off balance. When they recovered, they saw that the cannon blew a hole so big in the edifice's side; they were able to get half of the ship well inside Lunatic Pandora.

Ayleia instantly drew her sais and headed toward the lift. Before the rest of them could follow, she was on her way down. _This is it_, she thought. _This is what I've been working so long for. Mom, Daddy, this is for you!_

She had reached the ramp to exit Ragnarok when Squall and the others caught up to her. "Ayleia, wait," Selphie called, rushing to her side. "C'mon," Zell added, "If we're going to do this, we gotta do it together."

Ayleia nodded as she tucked a loose curl behind her ear. "Okay then," she said, "let's take it to them!"


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

_**Warning: This chapter gets a little bit violent. I suck at writing fight scenes, so don't get mad at me!**_

Exiting the ramp, Squall heard two familiar voices headed in their direction. Fujin and Raijin, Seifer's posse, were coming straight for them. They had heard the Ragnarok crashing into the side of Lunatic Pandora and came to seize Rinoa. At Squall's refusal to give her up, Fujin had decided that it would be best to just fight, which was just fine with Ayleia.

Since they were close range weapons and she had no intention of giving them the smallest chance of hitting her, Ayleia had put away her Sais. Before Squall could draw his gunblade, Ayleia had already landed a decisive strike on the side of Raijin's face with her urumi, and knocked a stunned Fujin back several feet with a ball of green energy from her hand. Seeing this as an opportunity to get the upper hand on their enemies, Zell began to summon Doomtrain, while Quistis used fire spells to cut off any of the guards present that were thinking of joining the fight. Doomtrain came and made the dynamic duo inoperative, and once the smoke cleared, they could see Fujin had begun to blindly attack the group while Raijin tried to find bottle of Elixir for himself and his partner. Being that they were easy pickings, Squall immediately unleashed a vicious attack with Lion Heart while Rinoa desperately fired the Shooting Star. Managing to find a couple of Elixirs, Raijin and Fujin saw that their fighting this battle was useless and ran back inside.

Ayleia looked at Squall. "We have to go now!" she said. "According to the timeline, we have approximately two hours before Adel is completely awake and getting through here is going to be a proverbial gauntlet, not to mention it's easy to get lost in here." She hurried into Lunatic Pandora as Squall and the others followed in hot pursuit. They took the only elevator they could find. Once they stepped off, they realized they had reached the center of the jade-green Crystal Pillar. Then they noticed two other elevators.

"Wait," Squall said, stopping the group. "Selphie, Quistis, does this look familiar to you?" he asked.

Looking around, the two girls recognized the area immediately. "Yeah I remember!" Selphie said.

"We came here as Laguna, Kiros, and Ward when Ellone sent our consciousnesses into the past," Quistis recalled.

"So you've been here before? Which elevator do we take to get deeper into the Crystal Pillar?" Ayleia asked.

"Hang on!" Zell interjected. "We came here, too, when Lunatic Pandora passed through Esthar earlier. Matron, Quistis, Irvine, and me took the elevator on the left. It leads down, so let's take that one!"

They took the elevator that Zell suggested, but once they stepped off, they saw that the path was blocked by two imps, a behemoth, and a turtapod. Noticing them, the imps instantly began to cast their magic. Before either imp could get a spell off, Selphie knocked one of them down with a swipe from Strange Vision, while Irvine used Exeter to shoot down the turtapod hurling itself toward him. The second imp hit Zell with a Firaga spell before Rinoa retaliated with a Holy spell, followed by blizzaga, putting it on ice. The behemoth charged toward them, knocking Ayleia into Squall, and forcing them to the ground with Ayleia landing on top of Squall's chest. She instantly rolled onto her side and quickly got back to her feet to see that the beast was now charging toward Quistis. Yelling for Quistis to move, Ayleia hurled a red ball of energy at the behemoth, clipping one of the small wings on its back. Roaring in pain, it turned back toward Squall and Ayleia. While Ayleia threw her Sais into the behemoth's legs from the front, Irvine pumped two shots into its back legs, bringing it down. Quistis rushed to the wounded creature's side and wrapped Save the Queen around the beast's neck, cutting of its oxygen intake, and Squall dealt the final blow, beheading the monster.

"Is everyone all right?" Ayleia asked, looking around, checking for any wounds. Squall nodded, wiping the behemoth's blood off his gunblade. Rinoa, Quistis, Irvine, and Selphie all confirmed that they were okay. "I'm not," Zell replied breathlessly before he passed out.

Ayleia rushed to his side and knelt beside him to see that the imp had done quite a bit of damage. Zell's face and hands had been severely burned and he had sustained minor burns on his legs. Most of his clothes had been burned off; exposing his chest and most of his legs "Is he okay?" Quistis asked, coming up behind her.

"He's alive. He's burned pretty bad, but he's okay," Ayleia answered, relived after checking for his pulse. "I can heal the burns and repair his clothes without a problem." As she began working, a pale blue light poured from her hands as she waved them across Zell's body, starting with his face, which had suffered the most damage, and working her way down. His face slowly began to return to normal, as did the rest of his body. She then said something under her breath, and then his clothes returned. But he still remained unconscious. She stood up and returned to the group. "He's fine," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"But why isn't he awake," Irvine asked, "If he's okay he should be awake by now."

Ayleia rubbed her eyes and sighed. "It's because of the shock from being burned. He'll come to in a couple of minutes," she replied assuringly. "Sometimes the recovery time varies from person to person. Zell's tough; he'll snap out of it. Look." Their eyes followed her gaze to see that Zell had already regained consciousness. After being helped to his feet and assuring everyone that he was in fact okay, Zell began fighting an invisible opponent to prove he was alright. "Okay, we've lost a lot of time," Quistis reminded them. "We have to hurry. Ayleia, are you okay?" she asked noticing that she was now holding her hand over her eyes.

Ayleia looked back at her and nodded. "Yeah I'm okay," she said. "Healing can be a little taxing sometimes, that's all. Come on, we've got to keep moving." Ayleia turned around and kept heading down the path into the Crystal Pillar.

After walking for several minutes, they reached a long hallway. At the end of it was a door and to the side there was an inaccessible structure leading to a higher landing. As they approached the door, they noticed that Fujin and Raijin were waiting for them. They raised their weapons, ready to attack. _There's no way they'd be stupid enough to want to try to fight us again after the ass-whipping they just took! _Zell thought.

Raijin glared at Ayleia as he touched the deep wound she'd inflicted with her urumi. "I'd like to repay you for this, ya know?" he said angrily.

"Yeah, and I'd like to give you another to match the one you already have," she said sweetly, grinning menacingly as she reached for the weapon. Selphie, Rinoa, and Zell just looked at her in shock.

_She clearly has no problem with fighting, and she's damn good with that weapon,_ Squall thought, looking at the gash on Raijin's face.

"NOW, NO FIGHT. NEXT TIME," Fujin declared. "Fujin's right, ya know?" Raijin said smugly. "We've got somethin' special planned for ya, ya know?"

As they turned to run through the door, a huge floating mechanical device landed in front of them. Zell rolled his eyes. This same device had thrown him and some of his comrades out of Lunatic Pandora as it made its way to Tear's Point. They didn't even get a chance to defend themselves before this thing had lifted them off of their feet and sent them flying out. That wasn't going to happen again if Zell had anything to say about it.

Selphie immediately began summoning Quezacotl as Ayleia hurled a wave of energy at Mobile Type 8. Rinoa charged her blaster edge with Thundaga magic and then launched it at one of the probes while Irvine hit the main body with a canister shot. They stood back as the machine began to whir and whiz. It unleashed a beam of light directly at Quistis, who was instinctively pulled out of the way by Zell. Squall launched into the air landing a strike on the right probe of the device before Quezacotl was fully summoned. The effects of Quezacotl's magic damaged one of the probes, causing Mobile Type 8 to go to its mobile attack. The probes separated from the main body and began spinning around the hallway. Irvine fired two shots and missed, and then Quistis tried hitting one of them with her whip and failed. Selphie almost hit one of them with her nunchaku. Squall landed a small strike on the first probe that whirled by his head, but any other attempts he made to hit either orb were useless. It was pretty much like they were just swatting at flies.

_This is getting us nowhere, _Ayleia thought, angrily. _This battle has to end fast! _"GET DOWN!" she yelled, without realizing it. She knew that her anger had begun to well up inside her. As they backed up, the others heard her scream in what sounded like a combination of pain, terror, and rage. They turned and looked at her in something close to fear.

Her eyes looked as though they were on fire. She had begun to levitate toward the high ceiling of the hallway and her body seemed to be charging with electricity. As one of the two orbs flew by her head, she reached out and caught it. As she held it in her hands, the electricity emanating from her body began to concentrate in her hands and overcharge the orb. She immediately launched it in the direction of Mobile Type 8's main body. As the orb reached the main body, it exploded, taking the main body with it in the progress. As the second orb began to drop to the floor, Ayleia charged it with more electricity and sent it spiraling toward the door, blasting it open. After she seemed to be satisfied with the damage she'd done, the electrical charge seemed to leave her body and, as she returned to the ground, her eyes returned to normal. She was still gasping for air when Quistis approached her and asked, "What was that?"

"That," Ayleia began breathlessly, "was a little bit of anger management. Zell, your theory was right." Everyone looked at Zell, who seemed to be shocked that she had known what he was wondering when she'd blown up at Squall. "A sorceress's eyes do ignite when they're emotional, especially when the emotion is anger. I got mad that the fight was taking too long, so I had to end it fast," she continued as she caught her breath. "My abilities can be manipulated through my emotions. I'll explain it to you later," she said, nodding at the now blasted open door.

As they walked toward the antechamber, Ayleia turned and sent a beam of light headed toward the entrance of Lunatic Pandora. She noticed that Irvine had a puzzled look on his face when she turned around. "Just to let Laguna know that the way is clear," she explained.

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Pacing inside the Ragnarok, the President of Esthar had begun to get impatient. _Damn, how long is it gonna take for them to clear the path? _he thought. They had already been inside for forty-five minutes. Laguna wanted to go inside, and even if Squall and Ayleia had told him that it would be for the best if he didn't. He decided silently that he wasn't going to wait anymore, and started sneaking toward the exit.

"….."

Kiros turned to see Laguna halfway toward the exit. "Where exactly do you think you are going," he demanded, crossing his arms in front of himself. "Sit back down."

Laguna looked at him sheepishly. "I can't wait anymore. I'm going in there!" he cried anxiously, plopping down into a nearby chair. "They've been in there for what seems like forever and we haven't gotten any contact from them! I want to know what's going on!"

"Maybe they're bogged down somewhere or lost. Surely YOU can understand getting lost!" Kiros said dryly.

Before Laguna could retort, he saw a bright light shooting straight toward them. Ward recognized it right away. "…."

Kiros looked up at him. "You sure," he asked. Ward nodded. "Ward says that the light was the signal. They've cleared the path so now we can go in."

Laguna stood up and ran for the exit. "Bout frigging time!" he said. "Let's go!"

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Walking into the antechamber, Squall, Ayleia and the others noticed that Seifer was standing on a tall platform. Fujin and Raijin stood on the floor across from them. Fujin was gripping Ellone's arm so tightly, she was wincing in pain as Raijin glared again at Ayleia. As Ayleia reached for her urumi, Seifer addressed them.

"Ah well, the gang's all here," he mused. Looking them over, he noticed Ayleia reaching inside of her coat. "Lady, I don't know you and I have no idea what the hell you're thinking about doing, but whatever it is, I strongly suggest you reconsider." Raijin saw what Ayleia was reaching for and slowly backed away while Fujin tightened her grip on Ellone's arm, which made her scream.

Squall looked over at Ayleia who was smiling mischievously at Raijin. When she finally looked over at him, he shook his head. As she released the grip on her weapon, she gave him a pointed look, as if to say "_Do you really think that I would put her in jeopardy?_"

Raijin breathed an obvious sigh of relief. Seifer muttered something under his breath. He always did think Raijin was kind of a wuss. But he just rolled his eyes and raised his gunblade. "Let's finish them!" he cried.

Raijin took about four steps before Fujin called for him to stop. Seifer looked at her curiously. "What's going on, guys," he asked.

The huge behemoth of a guy turned and looked at him apologetically. "We've had enough, ya know?" he said. "We can't keep doing this, ya know?"

Fujin released her grip on Ellone's arm and told her to go. As she walked toward Squall, he told Ellone to wait outside for Laguna.

Seifer shrugged. Apparently his posse wasn't behind him on this, but he couldn't understand why. Fujin explained that they were behind him if he wanted to pursue his dream, but it seemed that his dream wasn't his anymore. Fujin and Raijin had been trying to talk him down, but it had been useless. They had known that he would continue with this madness, so now they had no choice but to entrust Seifer to Squall. Seifer sighed as his two comrades left the room.

Seifer leapt from the platform onto the main floor, gunblade poised for attack. "Still playing the role of the knight," Squall asked, mockingly as he drew his gunblade.

"The knight has retired," Seifer smarmily, "I suppose you could call me a young revolutionary." He threw his head back and laughed maniacally. "Come on, Squall! Let's finish this!"

Ayleia took her stance for an attack while Odin galloped toward Seifer in full force. Strangely, Seifer didn't seem to be fazed by the incoming attack and, at the last second, destroyed the GF. "O-Odin!" Selphie cried, her voice reflecting the shock that registered on everyone's faces.

_Oh no! _Ayleia thought. _He knows how to kill GF's! _In the future, she knew of only two people that can kill Guardian Forces. And since she knew that the first one who knew couldn't have possibly taught Seifer how it was done, she knew it had to have been Ultimecia.

Seifer just looked at them with a crazed look in his eyes. "You won't get rid of me that easily!" he cried. "C'mon, Squall! Fight me like a man!"

Irvine fired his shotgun and grazed Seifer's leg, weakening him slightly. Ayleia lunged toward him, Sais in hand. Seifer tilted his gunblade to a forty-five degree angle, ready to slash at her. As she got closer to him, he began to bring the blade down. Reading his moves, Ayleia caught the blade between her Sais, locking the three weapons together. She smiled smugly as Seifer tried furiously to jerk his gunblade out from between the Sais. _Damn, this thing is heavy, _she thought. Thankfully, her strength was holding out. Squall watched with amazement as she used the leverage she had to lower the tip of the gunblade toward the floor as he looked at her with rage in his eyes, and then suddenly head-butted him. The blow stunned him long enough for her to twist his weapon from the hold she had on it, letting it fly into the air. Before the blade came down, she landed a punch on the side of his face, knocking him back a couple of steps.

Those two steps were all Seifer needed regroup. Remembering his wounds, he cast Cure magic to heal himself. His gunblade landed right next to him and he picked it up, glaring at her. Ayleia put away her Sais and drew her urumi, instantly charging it with Firaga magic. The long, whip-like sword glowed with the fire magic it held. "C'mon Seifer," she mimicked. "Fight me like a man!"

Seifer was about to burst with fury. There was no way he was going to let a girl get the best of him. "Stop," Squall finally said. Seifer cocked his head to the side expectantly, but Ayleia didn't take her eyes off of Seifer for one second. She could tell that he was an opportunist. If she turned to look at Squall, Seifer would take advantage. "Ayleia, this is my fight. Isn't that what you want, Seifer?" he said coldly.

Seifer threw his head back and laughed. "Yes, you're right, Squall," he answered. "So, what are you waiting for? Are we going to fight or not?"

Squall raised his gunblade and walked toward them. As he came up beside her, he noticed that Ayleia seemed to have such a commanding presence as she held her fiery weapon. He had seen that she could fight as dirty as Seifer did, and if he hadn't stopped her, she could quite possibly have dominated Seifer. He looked at her as she eyed Seifer. The fire in her eyes was like none he'd never seen before, but definitely something he had to appreciate. She turned her attention to Squall, who seemed to have this glazed-over look in his eyes as he watched her. "What?" she asked.

He nodded toward the others. "I've got it from here," he told her. "Go back and wait with the others."

"Don't use any GF's" she advised. She looked back at Seifer, who was watching this exchange with slight amusement. She desperately wanted to hit him with the weapon in her hand. She looked down at it. It still had the fire magic inside and it would be all too easy. As she gripped the handle even tighter, Squall grabbed her hand and shook his head at her. At this, Seifer smirked. She looked at him sharply. "Kick his ass for me, Squall," she said as she uncharged her weapon, wrapped it around her waist again, and turned to walk away.

Seifer saw this as a chance to pay her back for that punch she landed on him. He raised his gunblade to slash at her, but before he landed the blow, Squall blocked him with Lion Heart. Ayleia whirled around to see that the tip of Seifer's gunblade was a matter of inches from landing on her. Without thinking, she withdrew her stiletto and plunged it into his side. He roared in pain as she pulled it out and leaned in close to him. "Don't ever try that again," she warned and walked away, wiping his blood off the dagger and sheathing it.

As Squall fought with him, he could tell that Ayleia had weakened Seifer a great deal. His seemed to keep himself on the defensive and rarely attacked. Squall went after Seifer relentlessly, but eventually Seifer landed a punch on Squall knocking him back. He had time to cast another cure spell, but he was still weak. Seifer finally realized that he was backed against the wall, and as Squall approached him, he raised his gunblade again and lunged in a desperate attack.

Squall had to spin out of the way to avoid the attack. He caught the back end of the attack by bringing the edge of his gunblade behind him. With the gunblades locked together, the two fighters were in a struggle to find out whose will was strong enough. The others could do nothing but watch, hopeful that Squall would win. Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief as Squall used every ounce of strength he had to push Seifer back. As it looked that he was going do finish Seifer off, he felt a gust of wind and heard Zell call for him to move out of the way. Squall turned to see a man with what looked like six arms dressed in red. He was holding four swords, one of which appeared to have been the sword wielded by Odin. The guy seemed to be focused only on Seifer, as he stared at him maliciously. Squall backed away and rejoined his comrades as the apparent GF challenged Seifer to dodge his blows and then knocked him into the wall so hard, there was a dent from where Seifer's back hit it. The GF disappeared and the wind stopped.

"What was that?" Selphie asked trying to straighten out her hair and right her clothes.

"That was Gilgamesh, the King of all GF's," Ayleia replied as she walked toward Seifer while brushing her windswept curls out of her face. "Apparently Odin's sword was the fourth that he needed to be allowed back into this dimension." She drew her stiletto cautiously as she approached Seifer's seemingly lifeless body. "He had been banished to another dimension; cursed to remain there until he acquired the Four Sacred Swords. He would then come back to destroy the one who gave the last one to him and aid the ones the Fourth Sword was sworn to protect. So now he'll help you, although he will come as he pleases."

She knelt down over Seifer, dagger poised to attack if necessary. His eyes were closed and she couldn't feel a pulse. She was starting to think that maybe he was dead, so she lowered her weapon slightly. But as Squall knelt on the other side, she noticed that Seifer's chest was moving slightly. "He's still alive," she said looking up at Squall. "Do you want Laguna to have him taken into custody?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he replied, looking back at her. "He's lost a lot of blood from that stab wound, so he'll have to be treated first." He stood and walked over to Rinoa, who had been watching their exchange rather intently. "Rinoa, would you mind waiting outside to let Laguna know that we have an injured prisoner?" She looked at Ayleia, who was still leaning over Seifer. Not wanting him to die, she obliged, but she didn't seem to be too happy about it.

As she watched Squall and the others while they waited for the Estharian soldiers to come for Seifer, Ayleia desperately tried to stop Seifer's bleeding. Selphie had told her that except for Rinoa, they had all grown up together at Edea's orphanage, but were separated. Even after all those years of not being together, they seemed to be closer than ever. Even Squall would have to admit that much. She was kind of jealous of them, when she really thought about it. Being around them made Ayleia see how incomplete her life was without her friends. After her father died, she basically shut herself off from the world. She didn't have any kind of connection to anyone anymore. Watching them had made her realize how alone she was….

Then everything went black…..

**_Author's note: The Gilgamesh thing is just something that popped into my head. I may have read it somewhere, but I don't remember. _**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

Irvine was the first to hear her fall to the floor. He turned instantly, shotgun drawn, followed by the others. To their shock, Seifer was standing before their very eyes, holding his gunblade. Ayleia was curled up on the floor, unconscious. "Little missy got somewhat distracted," he said, smiling. "Did you really think that I would allow you to take me into custody? Sorry to ruin your plans, but I have a sorceress to resurrect!"

He threw a Fira spell at them to give himself enough time to get past them and out of the antechamber. He rushed into the hallway, grabbed Rinoa and proceeded to drag her up the newly accessible structure, reaching a landing higher up.

Selphie and Zell ran to where Ayleia was lying. Squall, Irvine and Quistis came up behind them. As she rolled Ayleia over onto her back, Selphie noticed the bruise forming where Seifer had hit her and knocked her out. "She's okay," Irvine said, noticing her breathing. "But we have to go get that son of a…"

He was interrupted when Ellone rushed into the room. "Squall," she cried. "Seifer has Rinoa! You have to go after them!"

Realizing what could happen if Rinoa were present when Adel was fully resurrected, Squall rushed toward the hallway. "Irvine, Quistis, you'll come with me," he ordered as he turned back toward them. "Selphie and Zell can stay here with Ayleia and Ellone until Laguna gets here. When he arrives, you will come help us."

Selphie nodded and brushed a lock of hair out of Ayleia's face. "We'll be right behind you," Zell replied. "Besides I'd feel bad not staying with her after she saved me."

Squall nodded and ran out of the room with Quistis and Irvine hot on his steps. He was well on his way up to the next landing when the antechamber filled with royal blue light.

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_Now is NOT the time for this!_ she thought angrily.

Ayleia looked around her to see she was back in her house…again. It was completely dark except for the fire going in living room and a couple of candles. Ayleia, now sixteen, was sitting on a pale green couch engrossed a very thick book. She had destroyed the old couch, unable to bear looking at it even after she'd had it cleaned. Having it in the house was simply intolerable to her, so she took a little bit of the money that her father had left for her and bought another one.

Ayleia had never seen anything that her mother had written until she'd found the journals. Their handwriting was almost identical, which helped a lot when she was studying. After opening the first of the six large books, she instantly felt more connected to her mother than she did when she would gaze at the portrait that had hidden them from her. She had the same dark hair and smooth features that her mother had. She even had the same beauty mark right by her upper lip on the right as her mother.

"_When you heal wounds, whether they be your own or someone else's, you must completely clear your mind except to ease the__pain caused by the inflicted damage. Focus on making it better and as you focus, the wound will start to heal. Keep your mind__focused until the wounds are gone. To heal someone is a gift that you give someone. To abuse it in any way is abuse of your power __and there is no turning back from that. You will then continue to abuse your power and dishonor the gift that Hyne has given you." _

She jumped as her concentration was broken by someone knocking on the door. She looked at the clock on the fireplace mantle. Eleven forty-five. To her knowledge, no one other than her was ever awake at this time of night. Not to mention it was snowing outside. She'd often gone out for walks in the cold late at night when she needed to take a break from her studies. All the lights in the houses were always off, so it was odd to her to have someone at her door. She realized that her friends and neighbors had been worried about her after father died and she'd shut herself away, but they usually came to visit during the day.

"Who is it," she asked. She was not leaving the couch if she didn't have to.

"Ayleia, it's me, Ethan. Please let me in. It's cold outside and I need to talk to you," the deep masculine voice answered from the other side of the door.

Groaning, she closed the book and hid it under one of the pillows. She must have not moved for hours, because when she stood up, her knees were hurting. She pulled her hair up into an elastic band and then looked down at the purple pajama pants and the white tank top she was wearing. Knowing that the second she opened the door a draft was going to hit her, she grabbed the nearby robe and put it on as well as her slippers. Ayleia sighed as she reluctantly pulled the door open.

Ethan Zandrage stood before her, looking desperate to get inside the house. His dark hair was almost completely white from the heavy snowfall. She stepped aside to let him in. He had to duck to get inside because of his towering frame. Before she could close the door, Deimos, Ethan's dog, rushed in behind him, leaping at Ayleia. After he'd finished jumping all over her, she smiled at him, and pointed to his favorite chair, which he immediately ran to and sat in.

"Ethan, it's late. What are you doing here," she asked. They had been best friends since they were toddlers, so she had always welcomed his visits. He'd even had a key before. But coming by so late wasn't his style, so her curiosity was piqued.

Taking off his coat, he sat on the couch and looked up at her expectant face. His hazel eyes looked tired and sad when he looked at her lately. _Gee, I wonder why,_ Ayleia thought as she watched this scene from the nearby staircase she was sitting on.

"I came to see how you were doing. You haven't returned my calls in two days and I was worried," he answered pleadingly. His eyes followed her as she walked into the kitchen and pulled two mugs from a cabinet.

"I've been busy," she replied, placing a kettle on the stove, and then turning to pull out some milk and sugar. "Some of the stuff I've been working on is a bit tricky, so I needed to concentrate." Ethan was the only person that she told about being a sorceress. She had shown him the letter from her father and he'd even seen one of the journals. Knowing this, he was the sole person in Winhill that understood the reason why she basically kept people away from her.

He shivered. Ayleia had only told him a few of the things she'd had to learn since she started studying the journals. She had made it clear that she didn't want him to know about some of the things she had learned. A couple of things she'd done had freaked him out. Her training with weapons not withstanding, some of the stuff she'd learned had just been outright terrifying. He'd convinced her to go with him to the pub for lunch one day and saw her blow up a caterchipiller on the way there. He had even noticed that some of the chocobos were even scared of her now.

Leaning back, he noticed something poking into his back. He glanced over at her to see that she was pulling down a box of her favorite tea. Content that she wouldn't notice, he reached behind the pillow and found one of the journals. This one was much thicker than the one he had seen before. He opened the book to marked page. _Healing,_ he thought. _Well at least this wasn't about hurling multi-colored energy balls at moving objects. _He made the mistake of coming by unexpectedly while she was practicing one day and she had barely missed hitting him with a purple one when he walked in on her. After that, he instantly returned the key she had given him, and didn't come to see her for a week.

The kettle had started whistling andinterrupted his thoughts. He looked toward the kitchen to see that Ayleia had finished pouring the water into the mugs and was bringing the steaming cups along with some cookies and brownies on a tray. She set the tray on the coffee table and took a seat next to him. She took the journal from his hand and set it on the end table behind her and closed her eyes. "Please tell me you're not here to try to convince me to stop what I'm doing again," she said finally, now playing with the disk that hung around her neck. She put it on immediately after she found it and learned exactly what it was for.

"I'm not going to try to stop you from learning your heritage," he began. He'd tried to convince her to leave it alone when she showed him the letter a couple of weeks after her father died. She flat out refused and he knew better than to try again. "But I am concerned about you. Your next door neighbor told me that you haven't even been outside in the last week. The older folks are worried that you're going to end up like that woman who ran the pub did when she got involved with that soldier. You know the story."

Ayleia rolled her eyes. "That was like decades ago. People in this town do not know how to let go of things," she said, handing him a mug before she took the other for herself. "They didn't take too kindly to my father and me when we first came here either, but they got used to us being here. I'm fine, I promise. It's just that some of this is a lot tougher to master than the other things from before." She picked up a brownie and ate it thoughtfully.

"Look, ever since you ended our relationship, you've started to draw back further into yourself and I'm not the only one who thinks so," he replied, remembering how heartbroken he was that night. They had fallen in love and he had even planned on marrying her when they got older. But even after their breakup he was still in love with her and came to visit her almost everyday, although she had been trying to push him away.

She glanced at him apologetically. It had been very painful for both of them when she broke up with him, but she had done it for his own good. She knew she had to partially because she was afraid that she would hurt him with her magic. Ayleia had told him that part, but she didn't dare tell him the second reason, for she knew that he would be terrified and try to stop her. But now that she was close to the end of her lessons, it was almost time to begin working on her plan. Unfortunately, this meant that she would have to stop Ethan from coming to see her, which was going to be difficult.

"I'm sorry Ethan," she said softly. "I don't have much of a choice now. I need to be left alone to finish my studying. I didn't want to break your heart, but you know my reasons…"

"You wouldn't hurt me," he interrupted grabbing her hand. "And I understand why you're so afraid, but we've been through a lot together, so I just hoped that we could get through this."

It saddened her to desperately want him to stay beside her, but she knew that it was for the best that he stayed away. She closed her eyes and decided that it was best tosever tieswith Ethan now before it got any more painful for either of them. She looked at Deimos, who was now staring at her sadly, as if he knew what she was about to do.

_Of course he knew what was about to happen, _she thought as she continued to watch from the staircase._ It was going to hurt him just as much as it was going to hurt Ethan._

"Ethan," she began as she got up from the couch, "I'm so sorry to have to do this, but you can't come and see me anymore. I need you to stay away."

He nearly choked on his tea. He understood that she was afraid of hurting him, but he didn't plan on her cutting him out of her life completely. "Ayleia," he started to say.

She held up her hand. "I know what you're going to say, but I've made my choice," she continued to force the words out of her mouth. "You can't come here anymore. It's too dangerous."

He was starting to think that she was considering of another danger. "If you mean Ultimecia, I know that she can't do anything to you," he replied. "Your mother said so in the note she left with your necklace, so whatever danger you're thinking about is not going to scare me away." He got up and walked over to her and tilted her face toward his. "I love you," he said, "and I wish you would stop worrying about all the things that could happen if we're together."

"I love you too," she said sadly, closing her eyes. "But I need you to stay away from me. There things that I'm about to do that could put your life at risk and I won't take that chance."

He recognized the look she now wore on her face. He knew she was working on something dangerous. "Ayleia," he began slowly, "what are you up to?"

She pulled away from him and turned around. "I can't tell you what I'm doing. Just knowing about it could be bad enough," she said quietly.

He grabbed her by her shoulders and made her face him again. "Tell me what you're doing!" he said, giving her a small shake. Deimos ran and hid under the couch.

"I, I can't," she stammered. He was beginning to become desperate for her to tell him what was going on. She tried to get out of the grip he had on her, but it was no use.

"Yes you can," he said angrily. "Stop being so afraid for me and tell me what's going on!" Ethan had never had to force anything out of her, but he knew that he would have to make Ayleia tell him what she was doing. He'd do whatever it took to stop her if he had to.

Deimos was whimpering from underneath the couch. Upsetabout what she would have to do to make him stay away, she sighed defeatedly. "I'm sorry, Ethan," she said softly as her eyes went red.

When she calmed down, she saw that she'd sent him flying over the couch. Deimos was now howling. WhenEthan stood up, the fear she saw in his eyes, tore her heart out. "Ethan, you have to go," she said finally. "It's going to get too dangerous for you to come around. Please leave."

He looked at her sadly, nodded and walked toward the door. Deimos ran out from under the couch to Ethan's side. "If you need anything, call me," he said, and he left.

When the door shut behind him, Ayleia burst into tears. She knew she'd done the right thing, forcing him to leave, but it didn't hurt any less to see the pain in his eyes. She went upstairs to her father's room and walked over to his desk. She looked at the small device that she'd found among some of her father's belongings a couple of years before. "Junction Machine Ellone," she said. Lately, when she wasn't studying, she'd been using the machine to view her father's past with her mother. She'd started to get the feeling that maybe getting to know what her mother was like would help her with her plans. She turned on the machine and picked up the headset and put it on. She put her head down on the desk, closed her eyes and let the machine take over.

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The next thing Ayleia saw was a woman who looked exactly like her. She'd seen her a thousand times when she gazed at the portrait in her father's room. She had the same long, curly, dark hair and the smooth complexion that she had, except she had light brown eyes. She looked to be about four months pregnant and was sitting in a chair writing in a large book. She looked up at Ayleia's father, who was smiling at her, and smiled back warmly. "What," she asked.

"You look beautiful," Joshua replied. Her smile got bigger. _Yeah she does_, Ayleia agreed. Joshua squinted his eyes and scratched his head.

Concern crossed her mother's face. "Is your head buzzing again?"

"Just a little bit," he answered. "It's no big deal. Lilia, what are you doing?"

Lilia sighed and closed the book. "Joshua, you know that Ultimecia is killing off the other sorceresses. She killed another one last week." She rubbed her belly lovingly. "The magic that protects us won't continue after the she's born, so I've decided that I needed to write down everything that I know for our little girl."

He frowned at her. He was terrified that his wife and child were in so much danger because of Ultimecia. He was grateful that their combined magic was protecting them from her, but he knew that once Lilia had their daughter, he was at risk of losing one or both of them.

"You know that I will do anything to protect our daughter, so rest assured that you will not lose her," she said, reading his thoughts. "I've already come up with a protection spell for her. There's no need to cast it now, so I'll do it right after she's born. But there's something that you have to promise me."

_Mom, can't you do something! Can't you fight Ultimecia? _Ayleia thought.

"I'll promise you anything," Joshua replied, kissing her hand.

She became serious. "Joshua, I don't know if I can defeat Ultimecia," she said thoughtfully. "She can't do anything to me while I'm pregnant, but afterwards, she'll be able to come after me. So, when I have the baby, I need you to take her away from here. It won't be safe for either of you to be here when Ultimecia comes. Take our daughter someplace safe. Will you do that?"

Joshua looked at her with his green eyes. He could tell that she was afraid of what could happen to him and their daughter. "Of course I will," he replied, kissing her tenderly.

_Don't worry, mom,_ Ayleia said, _Dad took very good care of me. I miss you both_.

Ayleia disconnected herself from theimage and then sat up and looked around her father's room. The memory faded.

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Ayleia opened her eyes and saw Laguna kneeling over her. "That didn't take long," he said, relief resonating in his voice.

She looked around the room. Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Squall, Selphie, and Seifer were all gone. The only ones with her were Laguna, Kiros, Ward, and Ellone. "Where'd everyone go," she asked, sitting up. She began rubbing the back of her neck where Seifer had hit her.

Laguna got serious. "Seifer knocked you out," he told her.

"I kinda guessed that," she replied.

"He grabbed Rinoa and ran up to the second landing to resurrect Adel!"he continued."Squall, Irvine, and Quistis went after them while Selphie, Zell and Ellone stayed with you until I could get here."

"Selphie and Zell have already gone up to help them," Ellone added. "They said that they needed you to come up as soon as you were okay. How do you feel?"

Ayleia forced herself to stand up. Her head still felt a little woozy, but she managed to keep herself balanced. "I'm fine," she said. "How long was I out this time?"

Laguna looked at Ellone. "You were only out for about five minutes when Uncle Laguna got here," she said, "he's only been here for a couple of minutes."

Ayleia knew that it wouldn't be long before Adel was fully functional. Her window was starting to close and if Adel completely awakened, everything she had done would allhave been for nothing.

"Laguna, stay here until we finish off Adel. I'll send another light to let you know when it's safe," Ayleia said. She ran to the hallway.

"…."

"Ward is asking if you're sure you can fight," Laguna interpreted.

"I can handle it," she replied over her shoulder, leaving the antechamber.

When Ayleia reached the second landing, she heard a scream. She sped toward the doorway of the only room on that floor.

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"She's junctioned Rinoa!" Selphie screamed. "We've gotta save her!"

"The only thing we can do is make sure that the magic we use doesn't hurt her," Squall replied. "Just focus on Adel!"

Ayleia couldn't believe the scene that she walked in on. Squall, Selphie, Irvine, Zell and Quistis were now faced with challenging two sorceresses. Adel had Rinoa attached to the front of her body and it looked as if she were starting to absorb her completely. Rinoa would be of no help to her if Ayleia couldn't get her away from Adel. She had started trying to think of a new plan when she noticed that Seifer was watching them, his laughter twisted with madness. She slowly walked up behind him and hit him in the back of the head with the handle of her stiletto, rendering him unconscious. She knelt down beside him. "Now we're even," she whispered in his ear.

As Ayleia stood up to attack, Rinoa screamed. Adel was starting to drain her of her strength.Rinoa had beenfighting the pain as best as she could, but it was no use. She passed out.

Adel had begun to cast another spell when a blue energy ball whizzed by Squall's head and hit Adel in the shoulder. Another, a green one, sped right by Selphie's ear and struck Adel again, this time in her leg.

They all turned. "Ayleia, you're okay!" Selphie cried.

"Well, at least now we don't have to worry about that jackass," said Zell, noting that Seifer was knocked clean out on the floor behind Ayleia.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, hurling a red energy ball toward Adel. This one hit her in her other shoulder.

Quistis got serious. "Seifer allowed Adel to awaken and junction Rinoa and nowshe's draining her of her strength" she said, turning back toward Adel using her Fire Breath magic.

"I can see that," Ayleia said. "We just have to focus on keeping Rinoa alive and weakening Adel until I can figure out how to get Rinoa away from her."

Before Ayleia could block it, Adel cast a Quake spell. The whole room shook so violently that pieces of the Crystal Pillar tumbled down. One of the sleeves of Irvine's coat was shredded, exposing a lacerated arm. Quistis had a cut on the side of her face and Selphie was knocked unconscious.

With three of them hurt, Adel began to get more aggressive. She hurled a Shock Bomb toward Squall. Ayleia instantly shoved him out of the way and deflected it back toward Adel. "Keep her busy!" she yelled at Zell and Squall.

She healed Irvine's arm and Quistis's face, then telling them to help Squall. Selphie was going to take a little work. As she worked on Selphie, she continued to help the others by periodically throwing energy balls and blocking Adel's magic. Butsince her healing wasn't working while her focus was split between the two,she had to make a choice between helping them fight Adel and completely healing Selphie.

_Healing is a gift that you give to someone_, Ayleia reminded herself.

"I need some time to heal Selphie," she told them, hurling another energy ball. "Can you handle it on your own for a few minutes?"

"Yeah," Zell replied breathlessly. "Try to hurry though," Quistis added.

Ayleia nodded. She focused all her energy on helping Selphie regain consciousness. She was determined to bring Selphie back to help them. She screamed as bright blue light pulsed from her hands. She placed them around Selphie's head, and smiled as Selphie opened her eyes.

"Alright," she asked. Selphie nodded as Ayleia helped her to her feet. "Let's get her!" Selphie exclaimed.

Ayleia blocked an incoming Ultima spell and retaliated by casting Meltdown. She then began to realize that Adel would be rendered defenseless if she could manage to get Rinoa away from her. She had an idea, but needed Rinoa to wake up and help her.

She had read about talking to someone telepathically in her mother's journals, but had never tried it. Figuring that now was as good a time as any, she began to try to speak to Rinoa. She closed her eyes and focused.

_Rinoa?_ Ayleia began

Nothing.

_Rinoa?_ She tried again, concentrating harder.

_….._

_RINOA! ANSWER ME DAMMIT!_ She said with all the power she could muster.

_Ayleia? _Rinoa replied. Much to Ayleia's relief, Rinoa could hear her.

_Yeah it's me. I know you're weak, but I need you to wake up and help me focus on pulling you away from Adel._

_How? _Rinoa asked.

_Use your magic against her. Just one spell can break the junction! Then we'll take her out!_

_What do you want me to cast?_

_Anything! Blizzaga will work, but you have to use all you power! Hurry! _Ayleia pleaded.

_Okay…_

_You ready, _Ayleia asked.

_Yeah…_came the reply

_Okay, I'm gonna hit her with an energy ball and then you can cast the magic._

_Alright…_

_Ready? NOW!_

Ayleia opened her eyes and hurled the purple energy ball right at Adel's face blinding her. At the same time Rinoa opened her eyes and used all that she could to cast the Blizzaga spell.

Adel screamed as Rinoa fell to the floor. "Squall!" Ayleia shrieked. He looked at her and nodded understanding what she was saying.

Before Adel could grab her again, Squall raced toward Rinoa and pulled her out of Adel's reach. Once they were out of the way, Ayleia hurled her Sais toward Adel's chest. She rose up into the air and launched the largest black ball of energy she could muster at her. Adel began staggering.

"I'M…NOT…DONE…YET…" Adel gurgled.

Desperately, Adel tried to hit Ayleia with a Shock Bomb. She spun out of the way, her eyes flaring as she charged her urumi with Ultima. She flew at Adel, wrapping the weapon's flexible blade around Adel's neck.

"Yes you are," she replied softly. "For the sake of the world and my family, YOU ARE FINISHED!"

Adel screamed as the blade tore into her neck. "Rinoa," Ayleia called. "Cast Ultima!"

Rinoa staggered to her feet. Holding her hand out to release the magic, she launched the spell toward Ayleia and Adel. Right before the spell hit, Ayleia unwrapped the urumi's blade from around Adel's neck and dropped to the ground.

After the room cleared, they watched as Adel began flailing her arms wildly. Ayleia knew that she was dying, but she couldn't die without passing her powers on. "Rinoa, go," she cried as shesent Laguna the signal he was waiting for, "go absorb her powers!"

Rinoa slowly stepped toward Adel. She could feel Adel's strong powers pouring into her as she accepted them. The feeling as she absorbed the power was almost hypnotic, but then the feeling that she had when Ultimecia possessed her before began to take over. And Adel disappeared.

Laguna and Ellone burst into the room. "Ellone, now's your chance!"

Rinoa's body fell to the floor as Ellone sent Ultimecia and Rinoa's consciousnesses further back into the past to make time compress.

Before Ellone brought Rinoa back, Ayleia felt that it was time to tell them an important piece of information. "When time compresses, I'll be separated from you since it's a time that I truly exist in," she told them. "I'll most likely get to the future first, arriving at my home, but I'll probably be waiting for you when you arrive at Edea's house. If I'm not there yet, it shouldn't take long for me to get there."

"That makes sense," Quistis replied. "But why can't we just all go to your house or you just come with us?"

"Well," Ayleia answered, "my house isn't familiar to you and I've never been to Centra so I don't really know how to find Edea's house. I've lived in Winhill my entire life."

"Winhill?" Laguna asked, surprised. "Y-You're from Winhill?"

She looked at him indignantly. "Yeah, I'm from Winhill. Look, there isn't time for any explanations right now so let's just get ready for this. Moving through time can be a little painful so just be prepared for a couple of aches," she warned.

"Okay," Selphie gulped. "Hey, how are you going to find us?" Irvine asked.

Ayleia looked around the room from one face to the other. "Well since I've healed all of you except Squall and Rinoa, I've kind of given a little bit of myself to each of you. That's all that I'll need to find you."

They all nodded. _This girl is full of surprises,_ Squall thought.

"It's time," Ayleia said, taking a deep breath.

Ellone brought Rinoa back to her body and sent Ultimecia back to the future. Laguna wished then luck, a few seconds later,the room shook as time began compressing.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

_**Author's note: Since Ayleia will be separating from the others, I'm going to be jumping back and forth a little in this chapter. **_

As Laguna and Ellone vanished from their sight, Squall, Rinoa, Zell, Ayleia, Selphie, Quistis, and Irvine were hit with the first wave of time compression. "You have to start going forward," Ayleia told them. "If you don't start moving now, there's no telling where you'll end up."

"What about you?" Rinoa asked.

"I'll be fine," Ayleia replied, remembering that Rinoa wasn't present for this bit of information. "Squall will fill you in on what you've missed."

"What if I disappear?" Rinoa continued.

"I won't let that happen," Squall told her, grabbing her hand.

"Just keep you mind focused on getting to Edea's house in the future and you'll be fine. I'll see you shortly," Ayleia said.

"What? Where are you going? It's too early to leave us," Irvine said.

"I have to make a quick stop. There's something I have to do before I land in the right place," she informed them and disappeared in a flock of birds.

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Ayleia jumped out of the time compression, feeling as though her skin were on fire. This was much different than when she fell out of the portal. It had only felt like her skin was crawling. As she looked around the Trabian snowfield that she landed in, she noticed that the sun was shining brightly on the snow that covered the ground. She also saw that beyond the herd of Mesmerize running by, there was a village to the east of where she was standing. Starting to feel the cold air that was swirling around her, she buttoned up her coat and conjured up a pair of gloves.

As she started walking toward the village, she started to become nervous about what she came here to do. She knew that she had already changed some things, but since Ultimecia was still alive, that meant that not much had changed in the future. Her mother was still dead, her father had still committed suicide, she had still hurt Ethan, and she still went back in time. Ayleia stood just outside the village, afraid of what she might see. She drew a deep breath and slowly stepped into the village.

The main street of the village was empty. Most of the houses seemed to be empty as well, almost as if the village had been deserted. She continued walking down the street and noticed that one house had the door open. As she got closer, she heard crying coming from inside.

"H-hello," she called out, stepping cautiously into the house and closing the door behind her.

"Who's there!" the female voice answered from a room further down the hallway. "Get out now! It's too dangerous for you to be here."

Ayleia stopped cold in her tracks. "Is that why everyone's gone," she asked. She continued slowly walking down the hall toward the voice.

"Yes, now go. I don't want anyone to get hurt," the voice warned. She was just outside the room the voice was coming from.

"I'm not afraid," Ayleia replied. "I'm coming inside." She pushed the door open and looked around.

The bedroom was a disaster. The bed was in disarray and there were vases and pictures broken with pieces of porcelain and glass shards all over the floor. She noticed that there was a woman curled up in a corner on the floor. Ayleia walked over to her and sat down next to her.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"Nothing. At least not yet," the woman replied. "I told everyone to evacuate the village. My husband and our newborn daughter went with them. I have no idea where he's going to take her."

"Why didn't you leave with everyone else," Ayleia queried, not wanting to give away that she knew exactly what was going on.

The woman sat upright, brushing her dark curls out of her face. "I couldn't go with them. I'm the reason they're in danger," she said regretfully.

""What are they in danger from," she continued her questioning.

"I'm a sorceress," she said looking at Ayleia. "There's another sorceress, named Ultimecia, and she's killing all the other sorceresses in the world and taking their power. Each time she kills a sorceress, she destroys the surrounding area to make sure that no one else could take the power before she could get it."

"I don't want anyone to die because of me," she went on. "So I told them what was happening and sent them all away. I told them that they should wait to return here. My husband had already promised that he would take our daughter far away from here and never return. Everyone left yesterday, but my husband stayed until this morning to give me one last night with my family."

"But what about your daughter," Ayleia asked. "Is she a sorceress too?"

The woman looked down. "Yes," she said sadly. "Ultimecia couldn't come after us because mine and my daughter's magic together kept us safe from her. I was afraid of what Ultimecia would do when she found my baby, so I cast a protection spell to keep her safe. That monster can't sense her magic no matter what she tries. The only one that can remove the spell is my daughter. I've done everything I could think of to make sure that she'll know what she's doing when she's ready." She sighed. "They've only been gone a few hours, but I miss them already."

"I know you do, but think you've done the right thing by everyone." Ayleia told her. She stood up and held out her hand to help the woman to her feet. "What's your name?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Lilia," her mother replied, allowing herself to be helped up. She was still wearing her nightgown and she looked as if something inside her was broken. Her face was pale and her eyes were red and puffy from hours of crying.

"Who are you?" Lilia asked.

"Someone sent to help you find the courage to challenge Ultimecia," Ayleia told her. "But Lilia, you can't fight back this way. You saved so many people in the last couple of days. Now you have to try to save yourself."

"Ultimecia is far too strong," Lilia replied. "She's taken the power of countless sorceresses. All of that power concentrated into one being is too much to fight against."

"I know she's strong," Ayleia said. "But what about your family? Don't you want to give yourself the chance to see them again?"

"Of course I do," her mother replied, looking out the nearby window.

Ayleia removed her coat and gloves. "Then you need to fight for it," she said firmly. "Now pull yourself together and get dressed."

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As Squall and the others watched Ayleia disappear from their sight, they continued to move through the time compression. They held on to each other, making sure that no one got lost and ended up somewhere they weren't supposed to be. Rinoa winced in pain as they started to move faster and faster through time.

"Ayleia wasn't kidding when she said this would be painful," Selphie yelled over the deafening noise surrounding them.

"I know," Zell yelled back. "It's excruciating."

"Look, we can't worry about the pain," Quistis said. "We need to focus on getting to the right time."

"We're almost there," Squall called to them, dodging another time wave.

Everyone looked to see that they everything was becoming solid again. They had landed in what looked like the Commencement Room where Rinoa encountered Sorceress Edea when she wasbeing possessed by Ultimecia, before she took over Galbadia.

_It looks like we're in a dream,_ Squall thought. Everything around them, including the breeze floating through, seemed to move in slow motion. Even their movements seemed to be slowing as they walked towards the door. Opening it, they saw a woman sitting in a chair just a few yards in front of them.

Sensing their presence, the woman stood up and turned to face them. She smiled malevolently. "SeeDs," she said.

As the sorceress cast her spell, Rinoa instinctively prepared herself to try to deflect it.

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Lilia turned back to Ayleia. "What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fight her?" she asked.

"You've done everything you can to make sure that everyone, including your husband and your daughter, is safe," Ayleia replied. "Think about getting back to them. Let that be your motivation to beat her. I can't help you with the rest."

Lilia sighed and then noticed the gold disk hanging around Ayleia's neck. Her eyes grew wide as she studied Ayleia's face intensely. She took a step back. "W-who are you?" she asked.

"I told you, I'm here to help you find the courage you'll need to fight Ultimecia," Ayleia said slowly.

"No, that's not the truth," her mother replied suspiciously. She walked to where Ayleia was standing. "I know this necklace," she said reaching for the disk. She read the inscription and then stared at Ayleia. "I gave this to my husband to give to our daughter when she was old enough to understand who she really was. How did you get it?"

Ayleia wasn't sure that she should tell Lilia the truth about who she was. "I found it," was all that she could manage to say.

Lilia began to study Ayleia more closely. The girl standing before her looked exactly like she did when she was younger, except this girl had green eyes. "You must tell me the truth," she said firmly. "What is your name?"

Ayleia closed her eyes. Her mother appeared to have figured out the truth. She bit her lip and decided that it was time to tell Lilia who she was. "My name is Ayleia Charmeling," she said softly, opening her eyes again.

"A-Ayleia Ch-Charmeling," Lilia repeated. "Are you telling me that you're my daughter?" she asked with tears in her eyes.

Ayleia nodded. "Yes, I'm your daughter. I had to come back to help you."

Lilia couldn't help but embrace her daughter. And finally, after seventeen years, Ayleia finally had the one thing she always wanted. She had the chance to hug her mother and talk to her.

"But wait," Lilia said, pulling back to look her daughter over. "How did you get here?"

Ayleia looked at her with tears in her eyes. "After I learned how to use my powers, I formed a plan to go back in time to help the SeeDs who were defeated by Adel before time compressed so that they could fight Ultimecia," Ayleia said. "The plan worked and now they're headed to the future to get to her. We got separated when I decided to come here to help you."

"Ayleia, what did your father say about this plan?" her mother inquired. "And how is he?"

That was the one question Ayleia feared to answer for her mother. "Daddy missed you so much, Mom," she began.

"Missed," Lilia repeated.

"He took very good care of me, just like he promised," Ayleia continued. "But he died from a broken heart when I was thirteen. He just couldn't be without you anymore."

Lilia couldn't contain her tears after hearing of Joshua's death. "Sweetie, I'm so sorry we left you," she said remorsefully.

"Mom that's why I need you to fight," Ayleia pleaded. "If you fight her and win, I don't have to be without either of you! Please!"

Before Lilia could say anything, the sky started to get darker. They heard a loud explosion coming from the front of the house.

"She's coming," Lilia whispered fearfully. "If she knows you're here, she'll kill you. You have to hide, Ayleia!"

Hearing the footsteps in the hallway, she hugged her mother tightly. "I love you, Mom," she said tearfully. "You have to fight her!"

"I love you, too," Lilia replied. "Now go. Hide in the bathroom over there."

Ayleia looked at her mother and saw the tears streaming down her face. As the footsteps got closer, she fled into the bathroom and locked the door.

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"The more sorceresses we fight, the stronger they get," Zell said breathlessly.

"I know," Quistis agreed. "But we have to keep going. We won't get to Ultimecia if we can't survive this fight."

Their Guardian Forces were almost exhausted from the constant summons and Rinoa was feeling the drain from using so much of her magic. The sorceresses were constantly coming as Squall and the others kept moving forward. They seemed to fight a sorceress in every single place that they had gone. They had moved from the Commencement Room to Timber, to Esthar, to Balamb, to Dollet. They were now in what appeared to be Winhill fighting their twelfth sorceress.

After they killed her, another sorceress appeared. This one was the most hideous that they had seen so far. She lookedtobetwice the size of Adel. She looked as if she were half snake and half woman. Her magic was three times as powerful as the other sorceresses.

"Dammit, where's Ayleia when you need her," Squall growled. He began to summon Bahamut.

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Ayleia listened as Ultimecia blasted the door open. "Lilia Charmeling, the last sorceress," she heard Ultimecia say in that sickening voice. It sounded more like a snake hissing than a person speaking.

"Sorceress Ultimecia," Lilia replied.

Ultimecia laughed. "I kouldn't kome near you while you were pregnant bekause the magik that you and your child had kept you safe from me," Ultimecia said menacingly. "You are the strongest sorceress that I've had to face thus far. But I have to wonder if your sweet little girl will be as strong as you are. Where is she?"

Lilia's eyes darted toward the door and back to the evil witch standing before her. "She's safe from you," she said angrily. "I've made sure of that."

"You think that she'll be safe from me for long," Ultimecia laughed. "You stupid woman! I kan find your child. And when I do, I will kill your precious husband and then take your daughter's power."

_Mother, that is what you need to fight her! _Ayleia thought. _She wants to kill us, you have to fight her!_

"I won't allow that to happen," Lilia whispered. "You don't think that I've done everything I can to make sure that you won't find them? _You _stupid woman," Lilia mocked.

Ultimecia scowled. "You kan't protect her from me," she hissed.

Lilia laughed scornfully. "I already have," she said matter-of-factly. "The only way you can find my family is if my daughter lets you! That won't happen, I have insurance of that."

"Kurse you Lilia," replied Ultimecia. "YOU FOOLISH WOMAN!" she snarled, "If you had told me where she was, I'dhave made your death as painless as possible. You leave me no choice!"

Ayleia listened as Ultimecia cast a death spell. "I won't make it that easy for you, Ultimecia," she heard her mother say as she blocked the spell.

Lilia cast a Flare spell, but it barely fazed Ultimecia. "HAHAHAHAHA!" she scoffed. "Your magik is strong, Lilia, but it isn't strong enough to really hurt me!"

"Maybe not," Lilia said, sending a wave of energy at her and knocking her backwards. "But you won't kill me without a fight!"

_Fight Mom!_ Ayleia told her mother telepathically. _Fight for our family!_

_No matter what happens,_ Lilia replied, _stay hidden and remember that I love you._

_I love you, too,_ Ayleia said. _With all my heart, I love you Mom._

Ayleia could only listen as the battle between her mother and Ultimecia raged on. The magic the two of them were throwing at each other was so strong that it made the entire house shake.

"You kan't defeat me, Lilia," Ayleia heard Ultimecia hissing. "Your magik won't hold out much longer."

Lilia knew that Ultimecia was right. She had begun to sense her magic weakening. Desperately, she threw a Thundaga spell at Ultimecia. To her dismay, Ultimecia deflected the spell and sent it toward the bathroom door.

Afraid that the spell could have hurt Ayleia, Lilia turned to the door. Her distraction was all that Ultimecia needed to successfully hit her with a death spell.

Ayleia heard her mother's terrifying screams. She began crying softly as she listened to Ultimecia as she taunted her mother while she absorbedthe power.

"I told you that you kouldn't defeat me," Ultimecia sneered.

_Mom let me help you, _Ayleia pleaded.

_Ayleia, are you alright? _Lilia asked.

"Your power is much more than I imagined," Ultimecia went on.

_I'm fine, let me fight her! _

_No! You must stay away from Ultimecia! She will kill you!_

"It's strong. I must say that no other sorceress has challenged me like you have," Ultimecia said. "The others could barely put up a fight."

_I need you to stay with me,_ Ayleia said.

_I'm sorry…I failed you…_ Lilia replied.

_Please don't go Mom._

"Your powers are almost mine," Ultimecia hissed.

_I'm sorry, Sweetheart…_

_Mother…_

_I…love you…Ayleia…_Lilia weakly said.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Ultimecia cackled. "Now that your powers are mine, all I have to do is find your child. Rest assured," Ultimecia told her, "I will find your precious daughter."

Lilia smiled at Ultimecia. "You…won't find her," she gasped. "I know that for a fact…"

Ayleia listened to the silence as her mother died and Ultimecia walked out of the room. She waited several moments before she stepped back into the room and looked around in stunned silence.

There was no sign of her mother's body. All that she saw was a shattered mirror and several holes in the wall from the fight that had just taken place.

"Mother," she sobbed, sinking to her knees.

_Remember what you started, _she heard Lilia's voice say. _I love you…_

Wiping her tears from her eyes, Ayleia stood up, put her coat and gloves back on, and headed back to the snowfield. She leapt up and allowed herself to be swept back into the time wave.

When she landed in her house back in Winhill, she tried to sense the others. They had not yet made it to Edea's house. _I guess I should go ahead and let it out, _she thought. She curled up on the sofa and started sobbing.

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"We gotta finish her!" Selphie cried. They had tried almost everything they could think of, but they couldn't seem to bring this beast of a sorceress down.

Squall was starting to get tired. He could see that fatigue was starting to show on the faces of his comrades. "We can't stop now," he told them. "Ayleia is going to be waiting for us. We gotta give it all that we've got."

Zell nodded. He began summoning Alexander for the tenth time since this fight began. He hoped that the holy spell would be enough to finally destroy the sorceress. Quistis used Save the Queen to lash at her with all that she had as Irvine hit her with all the Armor Shots he had left.

Alexander's Holy Judgment was the final blow that they needed to finally bring her down. She disintegrated into nothing as Edea's house began to materialize around them.

Rinoa collapsed onto the floor in relief. "We did it," she sighed as the others sat down to rest.

"Now all that we have to do is wait for Ayleia," Quistis said between breaths.

"Wait for Ayleia," they heard the familiar voice repeat. "You guys are late!"

They looked to see Ayleia standing in the doorway, smiling at them . "All of you look like hell," she commented, looking them over.

"Yeah," Squall huffed. "Well you try fighting over a dozen sorceresses and see how you look!"

Ayleia cocked her head. "Was that a joke?" she asked.

"No," Squall said defensively.

"I think it was," Quistis giggled.

Squall began scowling again. "Whatever," he said folding his arms. "We still have a job to finish."

Ayleia nodded. "Yes we do. I did some looking around while I was waiting for you," she told them. "Ultimecia's castle is just outside the back door heading toward the beach."


	8. Chapter 8

**_This chapter didn't come easily for me because I had to debate whether or not I should do what I have done. I hope you enjoy it._**

**_Chapter 8 _**

As they walked out into the time compressed world, Squall and the others couldn't believe what they saw. The environment around Edea's house was completely different. The dark waves of time compression made it look like it could have been midnight. "What time is it here," Zell asked.

Ayleia looked at her watch. "It's two thirty-seven in the afternoon," she replied.

"Ayleia, does it always look like this?" Rinoa asked.

She shook her head. "Not always," she told them. "Sometimes the sun comes out and it looks normal. It can sometimes last days at a time, but that's a rare occurrence. The waves usually block out the sunlight, so sometimes it's hard to differentiate between day and night." She walked a little further toward what used to be the beach and looked down. She let out a gasp and stepped back.

Selphie and Irvine saw what she was looking at. The body of a young man in a White SeeD uniform lay at her feet. He looked to be about nineteen and his face was twisted in pain. "Look," said Quistis, "there are more."

They looked around as the beach became almost like a cemetery. Bodies of SeeDs and SeeD candidates from all the Gardens and the White SeeD ship had appeared all around them. Some of them were wounded and others looked like they had been hit with Death spells or energy balls.

"They're future SeeDs," Squall said, kneeling over another body. "Don't you see? We're fighting across generations."

Ayleia looked up as a wind began to blow. "Look. Her castle…"

They all looked in the direction that she was pointing. Floating in the sky was the largest and scariest looking castle any of them had ever seen. Statues of horrible looking creatures seemed to stare back at them as they looked at the castle. The top of the clock tower looked like it had wings and it looked as if some of the lights inside were on. Huge chains kept Ultimecia's castle anchored to the beach.

"Her castle is creepy looking," commented Irvine.

"Yeah, well it suits her. Ultimecia is kind of creepy herself," Ayleia said.

"How do you know," Squall asked. "Have you seen her?"

"No," she answered, turning to face them. "But I've heard her. I didn't tell you where I was going when I left you, but I guess now is as good a time as any. I went to see my mother."

"You what!" they all said in unison.

She tucked that annoying stray curl behind her ear. "Yeah, I went to see her on the day she died. I wanted to know what happened," she explained. "By the time I got there, she had sent everyone in the village away to keep them safe and, after my father took me away, it didn't look like she was up to fighting Ultimecia, so I just wanted to encourage her to fight. She did. Ultimecia herself said that no one else had ever challenged her like my mother did," she told them proudly.

"She didn't see you?" Quistis asked.

"My mother made me hide in the bathroom because she was afraid Ultimecia would kill me," she replied. "After Ultimecia killed her and left, my mother's body was gone, but she told me to finish what I started."

"Well, if we're going to finish what you started, we have to get moving," Squall said putting his hand on her shoulder. She nodded.

They walked to the edge of the beach and saw that one of the wide chains attached to the castle was hooked right in front of them. Looking down, they saw that a time wave was also right below them.

Ayleia cautiously stepped onto the chain. Looking forward, she could see that it was a long way between the beach and the castle. She turned and faced them. "This is the only way to reach the castle. But you have to be careful," she instructed. "If you fall, you'll be swallowed by this time wave and there's no telling where you'll go."

They nodded and, one by one, they carefully stepped onto the chain and made their way toward the castle.

The chain seemed to go on forever when Rinoa noticed things that looked like doorways on the left hand side of the chain. "Ayleia, what are those," she asked.

They stopped and looked at them for a moment. After a couple of minutes, Ayleia realized what they were. "These are gateways," she said.

"You mean time portals," Quistis asked. "But wait, the portal you fell out of looked different from these."

Ayleia looked at Quistis. "My portal was created by a spell," she explained. "These are much different. While they are set to your time, it's almost as if they're set at random. It's a coin toss as to where you end up. When I cast my spell, I gave specifics as to where I wanted to go."

"So you're saying that we can go back to our time," Irvine asked.

"Yeah, you can go back," Ayleia told them. "But since time compression has begun, you won't be able to go into any of the cities. Things as you know them don't exist anymore."

"Basically, going back to our time is pointless right now until we kill Ultimecia," Squall said flatly. Ayleia nodded.

"Pretty much," she said. "We've lingered here too long. We need to keep moving."

Almost three quarters of the way to the castle, a strong wind began blowing around them. Before anyone could react, they heard Rinoa scream as she was knocked off of the chain.

"RINOA!" Squall yelled, diving after her.

Ayleia watched this scene in horror. She knew they would need them both if they were going to fight Ultimecia. "Keep going toward the castle," she said quickly, keeping her eyes on Squall and Rinoa. "But don't go inside. Who knows what's in there."

Quistis nodded. "Be careful," Zell told her.

Ayleia jumped off the side of the chain. She saw where Squall and Rinoa had fallen into the time wave so she had a pretty good idea how to position herself so that she would land close to where they were.

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"Rinoa," Squall called out. He'd only just landed inside the time wave. The hallway he was in was almost completely dark and it was difficult for him to see.

He had only walked a few feet when he heard someone behind him. He drew his gunblade and turned around. "Who's there?" he asked.

"Put your gunblade away, Squall. It's only me," he heard Ayleia's voice say. He could tell that she was several yards behind him.

"I can't see," he replied, lowering his weapon.

"Hang on," she said. She put her hand on the nearby wall and said, "And then there was light!" Squall jumped as a fire ball shot from her hand and lit up the long hallway.

"Is that better," she asked. He nodded and sighed. "I haven't been able to find Rinoa yet," he said.

She walked toward him, closing the distance between them. "It's okay," she said. "I know that she's somewhere close by, but I'm not sure where."

"Are you sure," he asked, noticing the way the fire flickered in her eyes.

She nodded. "Don't worry, Squall. We'll find her," she reassured him.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, but since this time wave is surrounding it, I think it would be a safe bet to say we're in the dungeons of Ultimecia's castle, somewhere in the past."

"Figures," he said. "Well, let's go. The sooner we find Rinoa, the sooner we can get back to the others."

"They should be fine," she told him. "I made sure they know not to go inside the castle until we got back. I don't know what kind of security she has in there."

While they walked down the broad, long hallway, Squall began to realize that they knew very little about Ayleia. She hadn't told them much about herself other than that she was a sorceress who wanted to save her family. He knew that there was something about her that matched him and he found that appealing, but he knew little else about her. His curiosity about her had gotten the better of him and he figured they were on much better terms than they were when she dropped into Laguna's office, so he decided that maybe he could ask some questions.

"Yes, we are on better terms, Squall," she said. "So what do you want to know?"

He'd forgotten that she could read a person's thoughts. "You can read minds, so why don't you tell me," he answered.

She shrugged. "It'd be kind of stupid for me just to keep reading your thoughts and answering your questions aloud," she said. "Besides, I prefer two-sided conversations."

"Okay," he said. "I was just realizing that you haven't told us much about yourself. I'm just wondering what you life is like in this time."

She smiled. "I knew one of you would ask me that. Honestly, I thought it would have been Selphie," she told him.

He nodded. "Well yeah, she has taken quite a liking to you," he replied, "especially after the Mrs. Moogle's cake."

She laughed. "It was pretty good!" she said. "So you really want to know what my life is like?"

"Yeah, you seem to have drowned yourself in learning how to use your powers," he began. "And, judging by the outfit you conjured up and the way you fought Adel, I'd say you learned how to use them pretty well. I guess I'm wondering if you did anything else."

"You mean did I have a life outside of my studies?" she asked him.

He stopped. "I guess that's what I'm asking," he replied.

"Well, you've been to Winhill," she said. They started walking again "There isn't much to do there, but I did go to Deling City occasionally. And I even had a boyfriend for a while." Her mind went back to Ethan and the sadness she saw in his eyes when she drove him away.

"You actually found the time to have a boyfriend?" he asked her.

She smiled at him. "Squall, I may be a sorceress devoted to learning how to use my magic, but I'm also seventeen years old," she said. "When my dad and I first came to Winhill, Ethan's parents were the first to welcome us, so we spent a lot of time together. We played together as kids and then when my father died, Ethan was there for me," she explained, "He's the only person that I told that I was a sorceress. He even saw my dad's letter, my necklace, and the journals. After I started studying, he came to see me everyday. I actually gave him a key to my house! Sometimes he would actually convince me to get out of the house and have lunch at the pub. We were very much in love," she recalled.

"Were?" Squall repeated. "What happened?"

She sighed. "I was close to the end of my studies and I had begun working on getting back to the past to help you guys," she said as they turned the corner. "I started to get worried that I would hurt him with my powers, so I broke up with him. Even then, he would still come to see me. But I knew that he needed to be away from me because he would try to convince me not to go through with my plan."

"What did he say when you told him what you were planning to do?" he asked.

"I never told him. He came by late one night and I told him that he had to stay away because it was getting too dangerous," she recalled. She told him about the conversation she had with Ethan. "I knew that he wouldn't stay away, so I had to do the one thing I was afraid would happen."

He stopped and looked at her. "You used your power on him," he said.

She nodded. "I knew that he wouldn't stay away from me for any other reason," she said sadly, looking down at her feet.

Squall started to realize what it was that attracted him to her. There was a lot about her that he could relate to. He tilted her face up toward his. "I understand why you did what you did," he finally said, running his other hand through her hair. "You sacrificed a lot to come and help us. You saved us and I appreciate that."

Ayleia closed her eyes. She had not felt a connection to another person like this since she fell for Ethan. She had put her attraction to Squall out of her mind because she wasn't sure what would happen to her when they destroyed Ultimecia. _Besides, he's in love with Rinoa,_ she thought.

"Squall," she said softly, opening her eyes. "What about Rinoa?"

"Right now, this isn't about Rinoa," he told her. He started walking her backwards toward the wall.

"But you love her," she said. She was trying her hardest to fight what she knew was about to happen.

He locked his eyes on hers. "I _care_ about Rinoa," he said. "She opened my eyes to a side of me that I kept hidden from everyone, including myself. So I owe her a great deal and I don't want anything to happen to her, but I don't love her." He slowly removed the clip from her hair, letting it tumble down to the middle of her back. His hand let go of her hair and started moving down her back.

"You don't love me either," Ayleia pointed out.

"Maybe I do," he whispered in her ear, "and maybe I don't. What I do know is that I want you." The sound of his voice and his breath in her ear was sending chills down her spine. His mouth moved from her ear and started down to her neck. _He is not making this easy for me_, she thought.

He could feel her temperature rise. "Squall, you have to know that there is no certainty about what will happen to me once Ultimecia is dead," she told him. "I don't know where I'll end up."

"Don't really care about that at the moment," he replied. His lips moved back up toward her face and found her mouth.

_Screw it, _she thought to herself. Before she realized what she was doing, she grabbed him by his jacked and pulled him in closer. He deepened the kiss and she turned them around so that his back was against the wall and then they sank to the floor.

She pulled away from him for a moment, just long enough to summon a beautiful palate with silk sheets for them. She turned back to Squall and smiled as she kissed him again.

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"I've never been with anyone before," she said, looking up at him.

He looked at her. "Not even Ethan?" he asked, kissing her again. It got sweeter every time he kissed her. She pulled back and rested her head on his chest.

"No," she replied, listening to his heart. "I wasn't sure what would happen if I was ever with anyone, and I didn't want to take any chances."

He stroked her hair gently. It felt like silk running through his fingers. "Well as you can see," he told her, "I'm perfectly fine and nothing's wrong."

She looked up again and smiled at him. "Yes, you are perfectly fine," she said. She suddenly became serious. "But we've lost track of time. We still need to find Rinoa."

He groaned inwardly. He'd almost forgotten what they were there to do. "Yeah," he agreed. "I suppose we better get moving." As they grabbed for their clothes, both of them were surprised to find nothing but air. Looking over to the side, Ayleia gasped.

They were floating five feet off the ground.

"Floating," she said. She looked at him and blushed. "We're floating!"

Squall looked at her. "Can you get us down?" he asked, trying not to be distracted by the way her hair was draped over her bare shoulders.

She nodded and mumbled an incantation that gently lowered the palate onto the floor. She wrapped part of a blanket around herself as she stood up and started to get dressed. "We still have a long way to go," she said, putting her pants and boots on.

"Do you have any way of finding Rinoa a little faster?" he asked. He had dressed quickly and decided to help her with the blue corset she was pretending to have trouble with.

She adjusted her necklace as she allowed him to fasten the hooks. "When we fought with Adel, I talked to her telepathically," she told him. She shivered when his fingers not-so-accidentally brushed against her torso. "I guess I could try that again."

He finished helping her with the corset and brushed her hair away from her neck. "Whatever works," he replied, pulling her into another kiss.

"But first," she said, "there's something that I have to take care of." She turned around and thepalate disappeared with a wave of her hand. She turned back to him to see his questioning look "It would look strange to find something like this in the bowels of some creepy castle," she explained.

He grinned. "You're probably right," he said. "Okay, let's find Rinoa and get out of here."

She closed her eyes. "I hope this works," she said. Then she took a deep breath and began to concentrate.

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She'd been wandering the hallways for what seemed like hours. Rinoa couldn't believe that she had lost her balance and fallen into the time wave. She saw Squall jump in after her but had no idea where he ended up. She was starting to think that she'd never find her way back to him. _Squall,_ she thought.

She noticed that he'd begun to act strangely after they met Ayleia. Anyone who paid close attention could see that they were attracted to each other. When they were going over the plan to fight Adel aboard the Ragnarok, it seemed to Rinoa that he only kissed her to convince himself that he loved her. And then it took a long time for them to come back to the cockpit afterwards. _What were they doing? _she asked herself. She didn't like the way he stared at her when she challenged Seifer either. It was like he was intoxicated. Then watching them when they were deciding whether Seifer should be taken into custody was enough to make her sick. Before Rinoa could do anything, Ayleia Charmeling had become a threat to her relationship with Squall.

She had just turned a corner when she heard Ayleia's voice in her head.

_Rinoa? _Ayleia said

She stopped. _Ayleia, where are you? _

_Apparently in the same time you're in, thank goodness. We were starting to worry that we wouldn't find you!_

_Who's we?_ Rinoa asked, already knowing the answer.

_Squall is with me. I found him not far from where I landed in the time wave. Are you okay?_

Rinoa closed her eyes. She tried her best not to imagine the worst.

_Rinoa? _She heard Ayleia say.

Rinoa opened her eyes. _I'm fine,_ she lied.

_Where are you?_ Ayleia asked.

_I'm lost in a hallway._

_Stay where you are, _Ayleia instructed. _I'm going to send a ball of light to you. You can follow it to us and then we can get out of here._

_Okay._

As she waited, Rinoa wondered if she should confront Squall and Ayleia with their attraction. She knew that Ayleia could very well take Squall away from her. But she had to hang on to the hope that once they killed Ultimecia, she would most likely disappear from their lives. It wasn't that she didn't like Ayleia; after all, she had saved them. But the thought of losing Squall was almost unbearable to her. _We'll just have to wait and see, _she thought.

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Ayleia opened her eyes and looked at Squall. "It worked," she said.

"That's good," he replied. "What happens next?"

She threw a yellow energy ball. "That ball will find her and then lead her back to us," Ayleia said. "We'll leave when she gets here. I'll just float us out."

"Float," he said smiling at her. Laughing, she gave him a playful shove.

He studied her face. _Maybe I have fallen in love with her,_ he thought. His mind wandered back to what she told him earlier. _"You have to know that there is no certainty about what will happen to me once Ultimecia is dead. I don't know where I'll end up."_

"Ayleia, where and when were you born," he asked.

She looked at him in bewilderment. "Trabia," she answered. "In a village about four hours east of the Shumi Village almost two years from now. Why do you ask?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just curious," he said. "I never got the chance to ask you that."

"What's on your mind, Squall?" she asked.

He pulled her into his arms. "I'm just hoping that I won't forget you if you disappear when this is over," he whispered in her ear.

"No matter what happens, you'll remember me," she replied. "Killing her won't change the fact that we met. But I'd rather just worry about now."

He pulled away from her and kissed her softly. He started to say something when Ayleia noticed the light from the energy ball she sent to find Rinoa speeding toward them.

"It's time to go back," she said, looking at Squall. "Don't worry. Everything will work out like it's supposed to."

Rinoa walked up to them slowly. "Sorry it took me so long," she said, looking at Squall.

"Forget it," Squall replied, "let's just get out of here."

"If we go back to where I found Squall," Ayleia said, "I can get us back to the others."

Rinoa looked at her blankly. "Have you two really been looking for me all this time?"

Ayleia was taken aback. "Yeah," she answered uncomfortably.

"Um, okay," Rinoa said. "Well I guess we should get going."

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Quistis hadn't stopped pacing. Selphie and Irvine sat on the steps of Ultimecia's castle watching her. Zell stood at the edge of the chain searching desperately for a sign of Squall, Rinoa, and Ayleia.

"Quistis, would you please stop pacing?" Irvine asked.

She stopped and looked at him, "I can't help it," she said. "It's been two hours and we haven't seen them."

"Ayleia's with them," Selphie said, standing up. "They'll be alright."

Quistis began pacing again. "The longer Ultimecia's alive, the more time compresses. We need them to hurry!"

"We're hurrying!" They heard a voice call from the chain. Zell looked to see their three missing friends carefully making their way toward them.

He backed up and let them approach the castle steps. "Took you guys long enough," Selphie said. "What happened down there?"

"I couldn't find Rinoa in the time wave," Squall explained. "We landed in the same place, but we were separated."

Ayleia sat down on the steps. "I found Squall first," she said. "We were in the castle's dungeons. It took some time getting around down there. We ended up getting lost ourselves for a little bit. So I contacted Rinoa telepathically to make sure that she was there, too. Thankfully she was and so I sent an energy ball to her and it led her to where we were waiting for her."

_That's when I saw you kiss Squall_, Rinoa thought. "I'm sorry I fell into the time wave," she said apologetically. "We've lost a lot of time and we need to get moving." She glanced at Ayleia who was looking back at the castle. "Ayleia, what are you thinking about? I can't read a person's thoughts like you can."

Ayleia, now standing, was putting all of her hair up as she surveyed the castle. "I'm debating whether or not we should split up or if we should go through the entire castle together," she said, not looking back at the others.

_Why? So you can have some more alone time with my boyfriend? _Rinoa thought angrily.

Having heard Rinoa's thoughts, Ayleia turned around and shot her a look. _Rinoa, we'll all discuss what happened later, but for now, we need to focus on the task at hand._

_Fine, what do you suggest?_ Rinoa shot back.

"What do you think we should do," Zell asked.

She turned and looked at them. "It's probably best that we stay together. I don't think it's a good idea that we go wandering through this place separately," she told them.

"You're probably right," agreed Quistis.

"Like you said before, we don't know what kind of security system Ultimecia has in there," added Irvine.

"Squall, what do you think," Rinoa asked. They all noticed that he'd been particularly quiet.

He looked at each of them and his eyes finally settled on Ayleia. "It sounds like the right thing to do," he finally said. "Let's get moving."

68


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

_**There's some more fighting. And there's some more back and forth stuff. Enjoy!**_

When they opened the door, they saw that the inside of the castle was even creepier than the outside. There were cobwebs everywhere and everything in the castle's foyer looked to be covered in dust. The once-golden candelabras were filthy and smothered in old wax. It was as if the castle had been abandoned for centuries.

"Damn," coughed Zell as he slapped a nearby chair, getting a face full of dust. "Can't she hire a housekeeper?"

Selphie rolled her eyes. "Come on Zell," she retorted. "Can you possibly think of anyone who would want to work here!"

"Quiet!" Squall ordered. He turned and looked at Ayleia. "Ayleia, does your magic work?"

She stepped forward and surveyed the room. She tried to hit one of the nearby statues with an energy ball, but it disappeared the second she conjured it. She sighed. "My magic is blocked," she told them. "Yours probably is, too, along with your GF's and anything else you may have connected to magic. For now we'll have to go with our weapons."

"For now," Quistis echoed. "Do you think there is a way for us to undo whatever it is Ultimecia has done?"

Ayleia looked at Quistis and shrugged. "It's possible. Ultimecia knows that you're here to face her, so I'm sure that she's come up with a set of tasks for you to undertake before you challenge her. That might be what unblocks the magic. The tasks may unblock everything bit by bit."

"Then let's get started!" said Selphie.

They looked around the castle carefully as they approached the nearby staircase. Near the top, they saw a huge statue that appeared to be a sphinx that was blocking the second landing. "Why is this here?" Irvine asked. "It's almost as if she doesn't want anyone to get through."

"Irvine, be quiet!" she whispered sharply. After examining it, she pulled out her urumi. "This thing is alive!"

"What?" Selphie asked. "How do you know?"

"Look carefully," Ayleia whispered. "Look at the body."

They studied the statue carefully. Squall, the first to hear the thing's slow breathing, drew his gunblade. "Get back!" he told the others.

As they started to draw back, Sphinxara leapt over them onto the main floor. Turning back toward them, it roared loudly.

"This is the first task!" Ayleia told them as she fled down the stairs.

"Are you sure," Zell asked, running after her. The others took off after them, weapons in hand.

She cut a sizeable chunk out of Sphinxara. "It has to be," she replied. "We can't go any further into the castle if we can't get past this thing."

They surrounded Sphinxara and went to work immediately. Irvine constantly loaded and reloaded Exeter as he fired off shot after shot at the beast. Ayleia threw her stiletto into Sphinxara's shoulder and slashed at it again with the urumi as Quistis lashed with Save the Queen. After Rinoa sliced it with her Shooting Star, the creature began to convulse.

As they drew back, Sphinxara tore off the mask it wore, revealing its true face. Roaring again, it took a swipe at Quistis and Selphie. As the massive paw came at them, Selphie slammed it away with Strange Vision. Zell lunged forward and slid underneath the monster to deliver several punches in its abdomen. Squall charged forward with Lion Heart and swung upward at its throat. With the final blow, Sphinxara, writhing in pain, fell to the ground and vanished.

Selphie doubled over, trying to catch her breath. "Whew," she said. "That wasn't as tough as I thought it would be."

"You're right, Selphie," said Squall. "That wasn't as intense as it should have been." He turned to Ayleia. "Can you use your magic?"

Ayleia threw an energy ball at a nearby chair, blowing it up. "Looks like my magic is unblocked now," she said. "I'm not sure what the limitations are, but we need to keep going. I'm guessing that guardians like that are all over the castle. Defeating them may be what unblocks everything."

"So once we beat them all, we can challenge Ultimecia," Irvine finished.

Quistis looked back at the staircase. "There's a door at the top of the stairs. That looks like a good place to start," she suggested.

"This castle is huge," Zell said thoughtfully. "It'll take us forever to get through here!"

"Then what do you suggest, Zell?" Selphie asked. "You think we should split up?"

Rinoa stepped forward. "I thought we agreed that it was a bad idea for us to separate," she said.

"Wait," Irvine chimed in. "Maybe splitting up isn't such a bad idea. We can cover more of this hellhole a lot faster if we split up."

Everyone looked at Squall. He was the SeeD commander, so the final decision was his to make. "Alright, first let's check out the room at the top of the stairs, after that, we'll split up," he said. "Rinoa and Ayleia will stay with me. You four will stay together. Instructor Trepe is in charge. Is that clear?"

Zell, Quistis, Selphie, and Irvine stood at attention and gave Squall a salute. "Yes sir!" they said in unison. Squall looked at them and scowled. "Alright," he said, "let's go."

They opened the door at the top of the staircase and found alarge chandelier leading to a staircase and a door on the other side of the room. "It looks like this is the only way to get across," Ayleia said.

She walked onto the chandelier, followed by Rinoa and Squall. Before Irvine could step onto it, the flimsy light fixture gave way and the trio fell to the floor below.

Selphie, Zell and Quistis rushed to the balcony and looked down to see Squall helping Rinoa to her feet as Ayleia brushed herself off. "Squall, are you guys okay," Selphie asked.

"Yeah, we're fine," he replied, looking back up at them as the chandelier went back up. "That thing isn't firmly set in place."

Ayleia looked around and saw a lever that had a cable attached to it. Following the line, she saw that it was connected to the enormous light fixture. "I think that if we pull that lever," she said, pointing to it, "it should lock the chandelier into place and they'll be able to get across."

Squall walked over to the lever and pulled it. He heard a soft click as the chandelier was secured. "Okay, Quistis," he called. "You should be able to get across. We'll split up from here. You guys can take the second floor and we'll cover things down here. We'll meet at the top of the clock tower. Be careful."

"Alright," she replied. "You be careful too."

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Squall turned to the two women with him and saw Rinoa glaring at Ayleia as she looked around the room. "Is something wrong, Rinoa?" he asked.

Ayleia turned her attention to Rinoa and Squall. "I guess we may as well get it out of the way,"she said. He looked at her questioningly. "Squall, Rinoa saw us kissing in the time wave," she told him.

"Yeah, I did," Rinoa said angrily. Squall closed his eyes and swore under his breath. She walked up to Squall and slapped him. "How could you do this?" she asked. "I thought you loved me!"

He looked at her and saw the anger and hurt in her eyes. "Rinoa, I'm sorry you had to see it, but I'm not sorry that it happened," he told her. "I do care about you, but I never said that I loved you."

"YOU CARE ABOUT ME!" she yelled. "Dammit Squall! That's all you can say after everything that's happened! You went into space to save me! You busted me out of the Sorceress Memorial! You made promises to me! I have your ring around my neck! And then SHE," she paused and pointed at Ayleia, "comes along and it's like I barely even matter to you!"

Ayleia started to interject when Squall stopped her. "Rinoa, listen," he said evenly. "I had planned to break it to you gently, but I don't have a choice now. I do have some feelings for you, but there's something more that I feel for Ayleia. I don't know what that is, but it's something that's developed since she fell out of the portal. It's an attraction that I can't and won't deny. I'm sorry that it hurts you, but that's just the way that it has to be."

Rinoa then turned her anger toward Ayleia. "I knew from the moment you landed in Laguna's office," she said. "I could see it coming from a mile away, but with everything that was going on, I couldn't do anything about it! You've wanted Squall since he pointed his gunblade at you when you fell through the portal! Why do you want to take him from me!"

Ayleia's heart was breaking for Rinoa. "Rinoa, I didn't plan this," she said. "The only thing I wanted to do was to stop Ultimecia and I knew that I would need your help to do it. Those who had tried before all failed, you saw that for yourself when we were on the beach. This was the last thing I expected to happen. I'm really sorry that you're hurting, but you have to know that not even I saw this coming. Besides, I don't even know what's going to happen to me when all of this is finished, so why would I try to take Squall from you?"

"Rinoa, please," said Squall, "this is getting us nowhere." She looked at him with tears in her eyes. The man she loved was tearing her heart out. She knew that this was the least of their problems, but she needed to say her peace before they could go any further.

"Fine," she said coldly. "You want to be with Ayleia, be my guest." She took off her necklace and gave him back his ring. "But if she disappears when this is over, don't expect me to take you back." She knew in her heart that her last statement wasn't true. She loved him, and if Ayleia's vanishing from their lives would lead Squall back to her, she would be okay with it. But one way or another, she would win him back.

"Fair enough," he said. "Can you handle going through the castle with us?" he asked her. She nodded. "I guess I'll have to," she replied.

Ayleia looked toward the middle of the floor and noticed a hatch with a broken lock. She knelt down and heard the sound of wings coming from inside. "Something's down there," she told them.

"Do you think it's another guardian?" Squall asked.

Ayleia looked at him and then to Rinoa. "Possibly," she replied. She began trying to pull the hatch open. "We won't know until we get down there."

Squall walked to the opposite side of the hatch and Rinoa took the middle part. She didn't like having to work with them, but sulking about it wasn't going to help matters. It certainly wouldn't help her get Squall back, so she decided to help out. They all fell backwards as they pulled the hatch open.

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"Something's wrong with Rinoa," Zell said as they made their way across the chandelier. "She's been acting kind of cold toward Squall and Ayleia since they came out of the time wave."

Selphie stopped. "You noticed it, too?" she asked. Zell nodded.

"We all have," Quistis said to her. "Something must have happened down there."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she caught Squall and Ayleia in a compromising moment," said Irvine. "Have you seen them together? It's like they're matched perfectly. There's definitely an attraction between the two of them."

Selphie looked at Irvine. "You really think so?"

"Well, think about it," Zell began. "She's strong, sexy, independent, passionate, and she challenges him. And did you see the way she fought with Seifer? The girl can definitely hold her own. What's there for Squall not to like?"

"I guess you're right," Quistis said as they reached the other side of the balcony. "They are perfect for each other, which is kind of sad for Rinoa."

Irvine shrugged. "Yeah, but if it makes Squall happy, then I say he should go for it. Nothing against Rinoa, but it seems like there's a new woman for Squall."

"Besides," Selphie interjected, "granted the way she looked at him when we were in Lunatic Pandora, I think that Rinoa still has feelings for Seifer."

They all stood in silence for a second, wondering what would happen if Seifer became Rinoa's knight in the end. "We gotta get going," Quistis finally said, breaking the silence. They all nodded.

Quistis opened the door to the terrace. At first she didn't see anything there, but when she looked up, she saw a flying jewel-like monster hovering above them. "FACE MY WRATH FOR SEEKING THY SEALED POWER!" it said.

Selphie swung at it with her nunchaku breaking a small piece off of the lower part of Krysta. It drew back and retaliated with a strange non-elemental attack, knocking Selphie into the door.

"Selphie, are you okay?" Irvine asked. He threw a flare spell at the swaying jewel overhead. She staggered to her feet. "I think so," she replied. She charged Strange Vision with Firaga magic and swung at Krysta with all her might. Zell jumped up and landed a strong punch with his Thundaga-charged Ehrgeiz, breaking off another piece. Quistis cast a meltdown spell and then lashed furiously with her whip. After a few more spells and several decisive strikes, the demonic jewel began spinning wildly and cast a final Ultima spell. As they stood reeling from the spell, Krysta fell to the terrace and shattered. Seconds later, their heads began to ache slightly.

"Do you feel that?" Zell asked, grabbing his head.

As they all grabbed their heads, they began to realize that the block on their GF's had been lifted.

"Ayleia was right," said Quistis. "As we destroy the guardians in the castle, all of our abilities are restored."

Irvine reached for his shotgun as the pain stopped. "If that's the case, we have to keep moving," he said. He opened the door leading back inside the castle."

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As they walked down the creaky, winding staircase to the wine cellar, Squall and Rinoa stopped and grabbed their heads. "Ayleia, wait," Squall asked, wincing in pain.

She turned and looked at them with concern. "What's the matter? Rinoa, Squall, are you two okay?" she asked.

Rinoa seemed to be in more pain than Squall. "I don't know what's going on," she replied. "All of a sudden my head just started hurting."

"Mine did, too," added Squall. "What about you? Does your head hurt?"

Ayleia shook her head. "I'm fine," she said. "It may be that the others have defeated another of the guardians and maybe your GF's are unblocked now. But I'm sure that we'll know soon enough."

Rinoa stood up straight and grabbed the railing. "It's stopped hurting. It's almost like nothing happened." She looked at Squall. "What about you?" she asked. "Are you okay now?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "I think that our GF's are unsealed now." He looked at Ayleia and then at Rinoa. "Let's go."

Once they made it to the bottom of the staircase, they began looking around the wine cellar for the guardian Ayleia heard from upstairs. But all that they saw were bottles and barrels of wine.

"Ayleia, maybe you were mistaken," said Rinoa. "Maybe there's nothing down here or you just heard the others crossing the chandelier. I think we should go back upstairs."

Ayleia turned and looked at her. "No. I heard something down here," she said. "It's down here, don't you hear it?"

They kept looking. "I don't hear anything. I'm going back upstairs," Rinoa replied, annoyed. She started marching back up the staircase. "Rinoa," began Squall.

As Rinoa headed back up the stairs, Ayleia and Squall heard the sound of wings above them. Their eyes wandered up to the ceiling and saw something that looked like a dragon. It had horns on both its wings and one on its nose and it was looking right at Rinoa.

"Rinoa! Get back down here!" Squall yelled as it poised itself for attack. Ayleia charged a bright red energy ball and threw it as Rinoa ducked Tri-Point's attack. The concentrated magic from its three horns culminated into a large lightening bolt that struck the railing near Rinoa's head. She screamed and ran down the stairs to Squall's side.

"Are you okay," he asked as he began summoning Shiva. She nodded and fired Shooting Star right at the horn on Tri-Point's left wing. She nicked off a small part as it reacted by throwing a lightening bolt at her feet, missing her by inches. After Shiva's chilling attack pierced Tri-Point with hundreds of ice shards, Ayleia pulled out her Sais and launched herself in full force at it, plunging her weapons into it as she flipped over it, pulling Tri-Point to the ground. Before it could get back up to fly above them again, Squall chopped off one of the wings with his gunblade. Only having two horns, the magic was too much for Tri-Point to concentrate and it overcharged itself and exploded, throwing Squall, Rinoa, and Ayleia backwards into a row of wine barrels and causing several wine bottles to shatter.

After several moments, Squall got to his feet and helped Ayleia and Rinoa to their feet. "Are you okay?" he asked them. Ayleia nodded using her newly restored healing power to repair a couple of cuts caused by flying glass shards. Noticing that Rinoa and Squall had a few cuts themselves, she healed theirs as well. Rinoa mumbled a thank you and they made their way back up to Ultimecia's Grand Hall.

While Ayleia sat in a chair that wasn't completely covered with dust and Rinoa found a sofa to sit on, Squall looked up at the staircase that lead to the chandelier, he saw that Zell, Quistis, Irvine and Selphie were walking back out of the chandelier room. He called them down to the foyer so they could regroup.

9


End file.
